Oregonians Speak Up for the POWER Act (HB 3546)
Posted on March 11, 2025 by David Beltrán Barajas | CUB Oregon
Tags, Energy, General Interest
The House Committee On Climate, Energy and Environment held a public hearing and written comment period for HB 3546 on March 6th. We expect a vote in this committee in the coming weeks. If you would like to help move HB 3546 through the legislature, email your house representative and share your support for this key piece of legislation!
On Thursday, March 6th, the House Committee On Climate, Energy and Environment held a public hearing on HB 3546, The POWER Act. This bill simply asks that data centers be responsible for the energy cost they create, be it increased load on the system or grid improvements needed to accommodate this growing industry.
The POWER Act seeks to hold large energy users accountable for paying for their own energy needs. This bill requires state regulators to create new policies to help protect Oregon households from paying for the energy needs of data centers, cryptocurrency, and other big tech. It will also make for-profit utilities identify the costs that these large energy users are adding to the system—and make them pay their share. By creating a special category for these customers, regulators can protect Oregonians from covering the cost of these businesses.
Read More: Protecting Oregonians With Energy Responsibility (POWER) Act (HB 3546)
Protecting Oregonians From Large Data Centers
When Large Energy Users Don’t Pay Their Share, We Do
When our utilities need to provide more energy, they have to invest money in meeting customer needs, costing millions of dollars each year from data centers. As we have seen the demand for energy rising from data centers, we have also seen prices skyrocket for household utility bills. Oregon households are hitting their limit with utility costs, as evidenced by our two largest electric utilities disconnecting a record-breaking nearly 58,000 households in 2024. Those who are creating the need for these expensive investments—data centers—should foot the bill, not Oregonians.
CUB has seen a flood of support for the POWER Act! It’s clear that Oregonians have justifiable worry around data centers and the impacts they’ll have on energy affordability for everyday users. The past four years have hurt people throughout the state, with many customers seeing billing rates increase nearly 50%. And if we don’t take action, we’ll continue to pay for utility investments caused by data centers’ energy needs. The question we need to ask is: Can we afford to hold the bag for this billion-dollar industry?
Energy Advocates Are Only Asking For What’s Fair
Throughout the hearing we heard comments from Representative Pam Marsh, Bob Jenks (CUB) and Cole Souder, Staff Attorney with Green Energy Institute.
Bob Jenks, CUB’s Executive Director spoke about the sheer size and scope of energy demand data centers pose, and how taxing, and costly this would be to existing electric customers:
“Historically we’ve never seen a period where all the growth on a utility system was confined to a single customer group… So far Oregon has been getting data centers that focus on cloud computing, these are essentially a little bit bigger than the electric load of the city of Ashland. But the AI data centers that are coming are larger than the load of the city of Eugene. Think about trying to accommodate a couple of new Eugenes that suddenly appear, that is what the electric system faces. Meeting the loads of the data centers is going to be expensive.”
“The AI data centers that are coming are larger than the load of the city of Eugene. Think about trying to accommodate a couple of new Eugenes that suddenly appear. That is what the electric system faces. Meeting the loads of the data centers is going to be expensive.” - Bob Jenks, Oregon CUB
Cole Souder, Staff Attorney with the Green Energy Institute, shared his thoughts with the committee on why this bill is fair in requesting data centers be categorized as their separate rate category, so that Oregonians are not paying for their growth:
“House Bill 3546 will help ensure that other utility customers will not be forced to bear the burden, when a new data center is built in their backyard. These data centers are not mom & pop shops; they are run by the largest, richest corporations in the world. Companies that can afford to pay their fair share of the cost that they impose on Oregon’s grid. Thus House bill 3564 protects customers against unaffordable energy in the future by ensuring they’re not exposed to the cost-based risk unique to data centers. ”
“These data centers are not mom & pop shops; they are run by the largest, richest corporations in the world. Companies that can afford to pay their fair share of the cost that they impose on Oregon’s grid.” - Cole Souder
Rep. Pam Marsh, Representative for House District 05, shared her thoughts on whether this piece of legislation would impact business and dissuade data centers from coming to Oregon.
““In terms of ‘what does it do to our competitiveness,’ I would just note: what we are addressing here is simply the fair cost of energy so that energy costs aren’t transferred onto someone else. We’re not challenging the tax benefits. I would argue that economic development is most appropriately provided through specific tax benefits, local land decision-making, as opposed to having residential energy payers subsidize energy costs. That just seems like an inappropriate way to invite a data center to set up shop here. ”
“I would argue that economic development is most appropriately provided through specific tax benefits, local land decision making, as opposed to having residential energy payers subsidize energy costs. That just seems like an inappropriate way to invite a data center to set up shop here.” - Rep. Pam Marsh
Get Involved with the POWER Act
While the House Committee on Climate, Energy, and Environment has closed out its public comment period, you can still let your reps know that the POWER act is important to you. Supporters can write to their representatives and ask them to support HB 3179.
Keep an eye out for our work around energy affordability during this legislative session. The FAIR Energy Act is working its way through the legislative session and should be up for a working session & hopefully a floor vote soon!
If you’re interested in getting involved, check out CUB’s Action Alert. You can also reach out to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to connect with our Community Organizer and get some assistance on crafting a public testimony and talking to your legislators.
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03/14/25 | 0 Comments | Oregonians Speak Up for the POWER Act (HB 3546)