Amendments to the FAIR Energy Act (HB 3179)
Posted on March 31, 2025 by Charlotte Shuff
Tags, Energy, General Interest
Too many people are struggling to pay their energy bills. Oregon’s largest utilities have raised billing rates by nearly 50% since 2021. While some assistance programs are available, these alone are not enough to keep up with utility customers’ needs. This bill aims to change the priorities of for-profit utilities and state regulators to center consumer affordability.
The FAIR Energy Act (HB 3179) will address Oregon’s affordability crisis by empowering state regulators to help families avoid big increases in energy bills. The bill will move any increases out of winter, when energy usage is highest. Utilities will also have more flexibility in using low-cost financing for important investments in the energy grid to keep customer impacts low. In addition to these protections, the bill will increase transparency so that consumers know what they are paying for and what to expect from any changes in energy bills.
HB 3179 is scheduled for discussion and a vote in the House Committee On Commerce and Consumer Protection the first week of April. Committee members will consider a few proposed amendments and vote to move the bill out of committee. If it passes out of committee, the next step is approval by Ways & Means for the small increase to the budget of the Oregon Public Utility Commission.
New Amendments, Same Intent to Address Energy Affordability
As HB 3179 has moved through the legislative process, a few things have changed! The intent of the bill has not changed, and CUB fully supports the bill with the -6 amendments.
Amendments are a normal part of the process of creating a bill. CUB has been hard at work talking with our allies, regulators, utilities, lawmakers, and other organizations to make amendments so the FAIR Energy Act is a strong and viable bill that can become Oregon law.
Including the amendments, HB 3179 seeks to address the energy affordability crisis by centering customers when setting utility billing rates.
New Requirements for Utilities:
- Prohibition on winter rate increases from November 1 to March 31
- Spreads out utility rate increase requests to every 3 years by 2027, with added customer protections before 2027
- Inform customers what they are paying for, published by category (infrastructure costs, fuel prices, etc.)
- Publish rate changes customers can expect over the next year, annually by major customer type
Empowering Regulators at the Oregon Public Utility Commission:
- Ability to consider household economic conditions in rates (e.g., cost of living or disconnections)
- More options for using low-interest financing for necessary utility infrastructure (called securitization)
- Expanding time to consider major rate increases to 11 months (currently 10 months)
- Power to determine when new rates go into effect for customers (take that out of utilities’ control)
CUB Led: -6 Amendments
CUB has been engaged in creating the -6 amendments to the FAIR Energy Act. After a lot of conversation with other stakeholders, including Oregon’s for-profit utilities and state utility regulators, these are the most significant changes:
- Introducing a three-year process for setting billing rates (replaces 18-month pause between rate increases)
- Adjusting utility reporting requirements on expected rate increases to at least annually (was quarterly)
- Clarifying what customer economic data should be considered by utility regulators when setting rates
- Removing redundant language of regulators’ ability to set billing rates as low as possible
With these updates, the FAIR Energy Act (HB 3179) will largely stay the same. The largest of these changes is on the timeline for when and how utilities can increase billing rates.
Three-Year Process for Setting Billing Rates
The -6 amendments direct the Oregon Public Utility Commission to create a three-year process for changing billing rates for customers of for-profit utilities. In the original language of the bill, utilities would have had to wait 18 months between major bill increases. This amendment removes the waiting period in favor of a more holistic, longer-term process.
More control by regulators. By establishing a three-year process, regulators can better control when rate increases happen. Currently, utilities choose when they ask to change billing rates, and regulators have to respond. With this change, regulators can set a schedule for each for-profit utility that both creates more certainty and allows regulators (and advocates!) to plan ahead for the heavy lift of analyzing these requests from utilities.
More holistic utility regulation. In the current process, utilities can come in year after year to ask for more money from customers. This makes it harder for regulators to do a thorough analysis and consider long-term customer impacts. By extending the process to three years, regulators and advocates are able to dig deeper into utilities’ finances, policies, and requests. This will help create a more holistic analysis of what utilities are requesting and how they are using customers’ money.
More certainty for customers. As we have seen over the past five years, utilities coming in with big requests every year have hurt customers’ ability to afford vital energy services. By extending the process, customers will have a clearer picture of what to expect over the next three years of their energy bills. This will improve budgeting, help assistance providers plan to distribute funds, and allow for better community education.
Stay Up to Date on Oregon Utility Issues
CUB will continue to advocate for people in Oregon on major utility issues. Sign up for the CUB email list for the latest updates, action alerts, and news on policies that affect the utilities your home relies on.
To keep up with CUB, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!
04/02/25 | 0 Comments | Amendments to the FAIR Energy Act (HB 3179)