Democracy’s Springing Up All Over

Over the past couple of weeks, CUB staff has participated in some events that got us thinking about democracy and political change.’

At the end of March, CUB Organizing Director Jeff Bissonnette and Law Clerk Kevin Parks attended Rebooting Democracy, a biannual gathering that’s part policy wonk heaven and part political junkie schmooze sponsored by the Bus Project. Held in Bend this year, CUB was there with a table to talk about climate change, clean energy and consumer protection and staff had a lot of great conversations over the course of the weekend.

CUB also assisted Environment Oregon in presenting a clean energy agenda as a potential policy focus for the Bus Project over the next two years. In stiff competition with about a dozen other policy proposals, the clean energy agenda didn’t get chosen but 50 people did sign up to volunteer with the effort.

One of the better speeches at the conference was given by Lawrence Lessig, a pioneer in copyright law and use of the Internet for social change. He gave a whiz-bang speech/presentation on money in politics. It was a great review about both the history of money in politics, as well as the present and potential futures we may face with the influence of overwhelming amounts of money in our political campaigns and legislative processes.

That speech came to mind when CUB Executive Director Bob Jenks, Legal Counsel Catriona McCracken, and Organizing Director Jeff Bissonnette were invited to attend Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s State of the State Address in early April. You can read the text of the Governor’s speech here. It was an occasion for us to reflect on the leadership that the Governor has exhibited on utility issues—making strong appointments to the Public Utility Commission, signing a bill to deal more fairly with utility taxes, advocating a Renewable Energy Standard, and pushing for better policies to address climate change. But it was also a time to reflect on what comes next.

CUB is a non-partisan organization which does not make endorsements. Our message of consumer protection, regulatory fairness and progressive energy and utility policy is the same whether we are talking to Democrats, Republicans, or anyone else. Gov. Kulongoski made a strong pitch for tax and kicker reform, and called on all of the gubernatorial candidates (both Democrats and Republicans) to use part of the kicker to create a Reserve Fund (read the Governor’s speech for details). And that got us thinking: what should consumers be calling on the gubernatorial candidates to do to protect residential utility ratepayers if they are elected?

So, we came up with a list of issues we think it’s important for a future Governor to answer. We encourage CUB members and supporters to use this list, add to it, find opportunities to ask the questions to the gubernatorial candidates and see how they reply. Utilities often contribute a lot of money to political candidates. Will that mean that, if elected, those candidates will be more open to utility shareholders or to utility customers?  Will the next Governor have the commitment to appointing strong Public Utility Commissioners, clean energy and addressing climate change as the current Governor? Only by asking the questions will we know before we cast our votes.

Here’s our list of questions:

• Do you believe that climate change is a serious issue that needs to be addressed? If so, what policies will you be proposing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
• Do you agree with Oregon’s traditional commitment to energy efficiency as the cheapest cleanest energy resource?
• Do you support the current system of an independent non-profit organization, the Energy Trust of Oregon, to deliver energy efficiency services in order to get the biggest bang for the buck on behalf of consumers?
• Will you actively work to prevent the legislature from re-directing ratepayer dollars away from energy efficiency investments to attempt to fill other holes in the state budget?
• Do you agree with the state’s efforts to responsibly develop renewable generation resources? If so, how will you build on and continue those efforts while still ensuring fair and reasonable rates?
• When you have the chance to appoint a Public Utility Commissioner, what qualities will you look for to ensure that consumers are treated fairly?
• Who will you get advice from in energy policy? How will you ensure that you are getting balanced input or will you seek input primarily from utilities?

As we said earlier, feel free to add to this list. Below is the list of candidates for Governor from both political parties. If you have a chance to talk with any of the candidates about utility and energy policy, let us know what you asked and what the candidate’s response was. The main antidote to money power in politics is people power. So we all have to do our part.

Democratic Candidates for Governor

Bill Bradbury [.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | Phone 503-206-4501]

John Kitzhaber [.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | Phone 503-206-5960]

Republican Candidates for Governor

Allen Alley [.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | Phone 503-869-8243]

Chris Dudley [.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | Phone 503-616-5350]

John Lim [.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | Phone 503-936-6371]

Bill Sizemore [.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | Phone 541-892-8050]

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