Legislature finally finds its way to adjournment - CUB comes out with wins

The 2005 session of the Oregon Legislature finally ended at 6:20 am this morning. Once it lasted into the early morning hours of Friday, it gained the dubious honor of being the second longest session in state history, lasting 208 days.

Despite several threats to utility ratepayers, the session resulted being a net positive for consumers. Here is a list of CUB victories won with the help of our ever-active membership:

* Passage of SB 408, the utility tax bill: SB 408 passed with widespread approval in the last days of the legislature. The bill gives policy direction to the Public Utility Commission to ensure that the taxes utilities collect as part of our rates are closely aligned with the taxes they actually pay to governmental entities. The utilities pulled out all the stops to defeat the bill but to no avail. There are still threats of legal challenge. As the session came to an end, the bill was headed to the governor’s desk for approval. Indications were that he would sign the bill.

* Passage of SB 983, the domestic violence survivors’ telecommunications bill: SB 983 ensures that survivors of domestic violence will have access to basic telephone service. When a domestic violence survivor leaves an abusive relationship, it is often difficult for her to get phone service, either because of lack of credit in her own name or a large outstanding bill from a joint account with a former partner. SB 983 creates a system of “judicial certification” that allows survivors to demonstrate that being without phone service would present a significant danger, as defined by several existing laws. CUB worked with Womenspace, a domestic violence agency in Eugene, as well as the Lane County Domestic Violence Council to pass this bill.

* Passage of HB 3363, the energy efficiency standards bill: HB 3363 establishes standards for 11 commercial and residential products. The standards will ensure that certain products, such as commercial washing machines, ice makers, torchiere lamps and others, will have to meet specific criteria in order to be sold or installed in Oregon. These standards will save tremendous amounts of energy and water over the next 20 years.

* Passage of SB 733/SB 31, the restructured solar energy tax credit:  Working with the Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association (OSEIA), CUB proposed to restructure an existing solar tax credit for residential customers. Originally introduced as SB 733, the proposal was to allow residential customers to install larger solar electric systems than they are able to currently. Customers can now install sytems up to 2000 watts and receive up to $6,000 in tax credits over four years. OSEIA believes that Oregon’s solar industry will benefit and CUB believes residential customers will too. By the end of the legislative session, the language from the original SB 733 was included in SB 31, which was one of the final bills that finally passed the legislature.

* Veto of SB 671, the Oregon Mutual Utility Bill: SB 671 was one of two bills that proposed a possible future ownership plan for Portland General Electric.  Dubbed the Mutant Utility Bill by CUB, its proponents did not outline any sort of governance structure or accountability measures for the new entity. Despite the strenuous objections from customer groups, including CUB, the bill passed both the Oregon Senate and the Oregon House and was sent to the Governor. Thankfully, the Governor listened to customer groups and vetoed the bill.

* Veto of SB 1008, the Oregon Community Power Bill: SB 1008 was a bill that outlined a state-chartered public corporation to purchase and operate Portland General Electric. It was a bill that CUB helped write and in the end, moved to oppose. Our opposition sprang from a section of the bill that outlined the new entity’s rights to benefits from the federal hydroelectric system. Essentially, the bill prevented the customers of the new Oregon Community Power from getting benefits they are currently getting, which could have led to a power cost increase of up to 15% for residential customers. This was unacceptable to CUB. While the language was part of the bill as it passed the Senate in May, CUB decided to continue to support the bill in hopes that there would be further discussion in the House. However, there was no discussion and CUB withdrew its support for the bill. When the legislation went back to the Senate, the bill’s sponsor refused to force further discussion on the issue of federal power benefits and sent the bill to the Governor. The Governor had already expressed “serious reservations” about the bill and CUB worked to convince him to veto the bill, which he did.

* No threats to public purpose funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy: In the past few sessions, CUB has spent a great deal of time making sure that funds collected from ratepayers for energy efficiency and renewable energy investments were actually spent on those critical areas. This session, however, it was very quiet on this front, which was a relief.  But next session promises to be much more active in this area as CUB’s Fair and Clean Energy Act - passed in 1999 - is up for review. You can be sure that CUB, working with a wide array of public interest allies, will be working to protect consumer dollars that both keep rates low and protect Oregon’s environment.

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