CUB Gears Up for an Active 2013 Legislative Session

2013 brings another session of the Oregon legislature. And it’s going to be busy. CUB has a vigorous agenda that we’ll be taking to the Capitol, all designed to protect residential ratepayers while advancing thoughtful energy and telecommunications policy.. Here are the top items on that agenda:

1. Requiring Better Analysis of Coal Investments: Billions of dollars are going to be required to be invested in coal plants over the next several years. CUB wants detailed analysis on what investments are the most prudent to make. Some utilities are willing to look at a variety of options in order to pick the least-cost/least risk avenue.  Others are not so willing. We want the legislature to specify the kind of analysis that should be done on coal plants before ratepayer dollars are invested.
2. Appliance Efficiency Standards: Oregon has been a leader over the years in setting efficiency standards for a range of appliances used in homes and business throughout the state. This helps save energy and money by making sure that the appliances consumers buy use as little energy as possible. Some of those standards have even become federal standards used across the country. CUB will work to add to the list of standards for battery chargers, plumbing fixtures and possibly other appliances.
3. Solar Agenda: We are working with a wide variety of stakeholders to come up with a set of proposals to increase the amount of solar generation in the state at a reasonable price. Our hope is to create a broad base of support among ourselves, renewable energy advocates, solar advocates, labor and, yes, even utilities for at least a couple of bills. A top contender for that kind of unity is establishing some statewide standards for net metering. We are also exploring what actions to take after the current “feed-in tariff” pilot program expires in 2015.
4. Technical Fix to the Emissions Performance Standard: Back in 2009, CUB worked with other groups to establish an Emissions Performance Standard that would require that all new power plants have no more emissions than modern natural gas plants, Senate Bill 101. The standard basically ensures that no more traditional coal plants are built without some way to capture the carbon dioxide emissions. The standard also applied to new long-term power contracts as well. It was intended to apply to both power generated in-state and power imported from out-of-state. However, in the course of implementing the law, it’s become clear that it won’t allow the PUC to administer the standard as intended. So we’ll be asking for some simple fixes to achieve what we thought we had done four years ago.
5. Defense of the Renewable Energy Standard: From the day the bill was signed to establish Oregon’s Renewable Energy Standard, there have been a lot of attempts to try to water it down. CUB was a leader in developing the standard to increase the amount of renewable resources while protecting customers. We have also been among the strongest defenders of the standard. We expect even more attempts to weaken or reduce the standard in 2013 and we’ll be ready to continue our work to defend it.

Of course, there will be lots of other issues that pop up during the course of the session – some that we’ll support and some that we’ll oppose. Either way, our benchmark in reviewing legislation is “does this proposal help or hurt ratepayers?”

And, as usual, we’ll need our members and supporters at the ready to help us communicate with legislators and urge them to support bills that benefit ratepayers and reject bills that don’t. Members will be getting action alerts and updates throughout the session and we know that CUB’s support base will make a big difference in our legislative successes in 2013. Sign up here to stay up-to-date on legislative updates!

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