Portland General Electric (PGE), serving almost 44 percent of Oregon customers, has recently provided a draft of its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). PGE will submit the final planning document in July. CUB applauds PGE on designing a resource plan that... Read More »

CUB’s executive director, Bob Jenks, emphasized the strong consumer protection elements of HB 2020 in two sessions on utility sector decarbonization at a recent conference in Portland. The event was hosted by the National Association of Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA), whose... Read More »

On Monday June 17, the Oregon House passed HB 2020, the Clean Energy Jobs Act, which establishes the Oregon Climate Action Program. This program sets an economy-wide greenhouse gas (popular shorthand: carbon) emissions cap to meet the state’s climate goals. Additionally,... Read More »

The traditional ratemaking model, where a utility profits by selling electricity and earning a rate of return on capital investments, promotes consumption of energy as well as massive capital investments. While this approach was useful as the country was rapidly... Read More »

On May 21, I had the pleasure of attending Northwest Environmental Business Council’s annual “Oregon’s Energy Future Conference.” The day both started and ended on particularly high notes. Oriana Magnera, Climate and Energy Policy Coordinator at Verde, delivered the opening keynote on the... Read More »

The Third annual Northwest Wholesale Power Market Conference, held in Portland on May 15, provided attendees (myself included) with a great opportunity to learn about wholesale power markets – including challenges and innovations unique to the Western market.

Important Background:
Natural... Read More »