Oregon Adopts Climate Protection Plan
Posted on January 13, 2022 by Bob Jenks
Tags, Energy
Last month (December 2021), Oregon adopted the Climate Protection Program. This program is designed to reduce Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2035 and 90 percent by 2050. Oregon’s program is one of the strongest in the country and has implications for the state’s utilities.
The program applies to suppliers of fossil fuels (natural gas, gasoline, diesel, propane) and large industrial facilities. The program does not apply to electric utilities, who must comply with the even stricter guidelines of the 100% Clean Electricity law. The Climate Protection Program does have implications for electric utilities, though.
The Climate Protection Program is designed to systematically and aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Oregon. Emissions will be tracked annually.
Covered businesses must show that they are doing one of the following:
- Reducing their emissions
- Buying excess emission allowances from other entities
- Contributing funds to Community Climate Investments
Community Climate Investments is a new program to support projects that directly reduce emissions and provide additional community benefits. An example of such an investment might be highly efficient heat pumps to heat and cool the homes of low-income Oregonians.
The program will be a challenge for natural gas utilities . Natural gas is a fossil fuel. Reducing natural gas emissions by 50 percent by 2035 is a huge challenge – particularly with the natural gas system adding thousands of new customers each year.
CUB has serious concerns about the ability of natural gas utilities to meet these requirements. Many stakeholders see electrification of some gas appliances as critical to this effort, particularly the installation of electric heat pumps which can heat and cool buildings. Look for more CUB discussion and analysis of this issue as the year goes on
Gas utilities point to energy efficiency and renewable natural gas as the primary tools to reduce emissions. But early modeling suggests that these tools will not be adequate. Current Oregon supplies of renewable gas are quite small.
Electric utilities will also be affected. While Oregon’s electric utilities have already begun the transition to clean energy, there will still be challenges.
This program encourages electric vehicles and heat pumps to reduce emissions. Electric utilities have to plan to meet a growing load with a larger winter peak. CUB will also be looking at electric utilities’ plans to meet load growth caused by the switch to clean electricity.
After the 2020 Labor Day fires and last summer’s heat dome events, it is clear that climate change is already negatively affecting Oregon. Reducing emissions is essential. The Climate Protection Plan is bold and creates a huge challenge for Oregon and for Oregon’s utilities.
CUB will be working with utilities and regulators to ensure that we can meet the Climate Protection Plan requirements. We will also ensure that Oregonians have affordable access to lights, heat, cooling, and transportation.
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01/13/22 | 0 Comments | Oregon Adopts Climate Protection Plan