CUB Supports Spreading Out Energy Bill Increases

Posted on June 23, 2026 by Charlotte Shuff
Tags, General Interest, Energy

Last year, CUB did something we’ve never done before. We took the lead on four energy affordability bills during Oregon’s legislative session—and we passed all of them! Among those big victories, the FAIR Energy Act (HB 3179) was passed to rein in back-to-back energy bill rate hikes, addressing one of the root causes of Oregon’s energy affordability crisis. Now, regulators at the Public Utility Commission (PUC) have begun to implement the FAIR Energy Act.

Right now, we have the opportunity to make significant strides in reining in utilities asking for big increases to customer bills. Regulators are now considering a proposal that would require all for-profit utilities to create five-year spending plans, meet community-supportive metrics, and stick to a budget.

CUB is supporting this exciting new proposal and encouraging community members to weigh in.

Want even more details? See the full docket! Docket AR 676 is available on the Public Utility Commission website.

Spreading Out Rate Increases: Writing the Rules for Utilities

Regulators have opened a process to develop the specific rules for spreading out utility rate increase requests over multiple years by the end of 2027. The goal of developing this process is to lessen the number of times utilities can raise customers’ energy bills. It’s time to center Oregonians in utility decision-making!

No More Surprises: Creating a Multi-Year Rate Plan Framework

Regulators are now considering a proposal that would require all for-profit utilities to create five-year spending plans, stick to a budget, and meet community-supportive metrics.

With these rules, regulators can better control when rate increases happen. Right now, utilities choose when they want to ask regulators to change billing rates, and regulators have to respond. The longer process not only protects customers from frequent large increases but also allows regulators and advocates to dig deeper into what utilities are asking for in their requests.

CUB Supports Requiring Five Year Plans

Proposed: Utilities must create five-year plans for spending, investments, and more.

We’ve all seen what happens when utilities are not held to budgeting plans: power bills up by 50% in four years (2021-2025). By requiring utilities to create five-year plans, we can hold them accountable for controlling their costs. And creating a standard expectation of what will go into these plans helps regulators, advocates, and customers know what to expect for the near future.

In the past, it was uncommon for utilities to ask for big bill increases every year. But now, it’s become standard for utilities to make requests most years. These rules will help ensure utilities better control their costs, protecting your home energy bills. Right now, utilities can also request approval for smaller rate increases as needed for one-off or specific programs. Before the FAIR Energy Act passed, utilities were asking for more one-off requests, more often, making it difficult to track how much energy bills increased year over year.

And utilities want to maintain the status quo. Oregon’s largest for-profit utilities are pushing back hard to keep the status quo. In fact, what they are arguing for could even make things worse. Having standardized requirements for long-term planning means they have to change their tactics and face the realities of limits. Not having the “flexibility” to raise customers’ bills when it is most convenient for them is a big change. But it’s a change that is in the best interest of Oregonians!

CUB Supports Requiring Utilities to Stick to a Budget

Proposed: Utilities have limits on how much money can be added to customers’ bills over the length of their five-year plans.

We are all tied to a budget, and our utilities should be, too. Over the last five years, as utilities have added massive amounts to our gas and electric bills, more and more Oregonians have struggled to keep up with costs. This is especially true for households living in old homes that desperately need critical repairs, weatherization, and other energy efficiency upgrades. Disconnections are on the rise, with record numbers of families losing critical utility service each year because it is too expensive. And a goal of the FAIR Energy Act is to help make sure this trend does not continue!

Without clear guardrails, utilities will keep spending and asking us to pay them back. For example, PGE has been a major offender in allowing costs to balloon without much accountability. In 2020, PGE set a capital spending target for 2024 at $500 million. By February of 2023, it had grown by almost 50% to $730 million. But its growth kept accelerating, to $1.34 billion in April of 2024 - a 268% increase from the original spending target in just four years.

But utilities do not like this budget framework. Instead of a standardized framework, they are arguing for aspects of the plan to be handled on a case-by-case basis. But what they are actually asking for is to be able to continue throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. And this approach comes at the expense of customers. We need to stop the unending major bill increases and give customers more predictability.

CUB Supports Requiring Utilities to Meet Community Benefit Metrics

Proposed: Utilities have requirements for meeting performance standards on disconnections, maintaining their system, and (for electric utilities) community-based clean energy.

Oregon’s for-profit electric utilities need some encouragement to make choices that reflect Oregonians’ values. In addition to the FAIR Energy Act, state legislators also passed Performance-Based Regulation (SB 688) in 2025. With this new framework, a portion of utilities’ profits would be tied to what Oregonians value most. These priorities can be related to affordability for customers, reducing emissions, meeting safety standards, and other goals.

The proposal for meeting community benefit metrics helps ensure that Oregonians’ needs are adequately met by utilities. This proposal includes utility company necessities: reliability, safety, and customer service. But it also goes further to require performance on reducing disconnections, making the most out of our existing infrastructure to limit unnecessary investments, and more investments in renewable energy that support our communities.

Utilities say they aren’t ready to move forward with developing performance metrics, and we should wait. Their argument is that they need more time to assess what communities need. But we cannot throw the baby out with the bathwater. This stalling tactic is one that we have seen countless times: delay studies and do nothing. And we already have a lot of existing data pointing to what customers need. Oregonians need utilities that work for them, and moving forward with developing these metrics is the right thing to do.

Even More to Come: FAIR Energy Act Implementation

HB 3179 requires energy rate increase requests to be spread out to at least every 3 years by 2027, with added customer protections before next year. It also prevents increases in home energy rates during peak winter months, when energy usage and bills are highest. And it increases transparency so consumers know what they are paying for and what to expect from any proposed changes to energy bills.

Together, we can expect these changes to slow the pace of energy bill hikes and help customers be more prepared for future increases.

Multiple Stages to Making FAIR Energy a Reality

Last Fall, regulators at the Public Utility Commission opened four dockets as part of their process to roll out the FAIR Energy Act over multiple stages. The five main components include:

Building frameworks for required multi-year plans for rate increases
Setting a schedule for when utilities can request major bill increases
Banning winter rate increases for home customers
Customer impact analysis
Utility reporting expectations (bill increases and what costs are causing rates to go up)

Regulators plan to accomplish the big goals set out in this process by mid-2027.

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