What I didn’t expect was a potent example of hope itself, and a lesson in why infrastructures are so crucial for hope. 

Infrastructures aren’t just the invisible stuff you take for granted. They are more like their own centers of gravity. The pieces—the wires and photovoltaics and contracts and permitting and so on—all need to come together before they work as a whole. That is, before they run smoothly enough for you to take them for granted.

The history of electrification shows that no one just “rolls out” an infrastructure. Pieces are drawn in over time, piggybacking on one another in layers. At first, they don’t necessarily all fit or coordinate, but over time and with adjustment, they click. This is what makes infrastructures so powerful: through all this piggybacking and layering, the whole eventually changes.

The Gooding Annex solar park boasts 10 rows of solar panels with a capacity of 1.23 MW. VERDE hopes to build a new solar park adjacent with about 1.5 MW of capacity in the coming years.

The tour was impressive — 1.23 megawatts of power generated right next to the airport, and turned into electricity bill credits for 150 Portlanders with low incomes via Pacific Power. This is what that kind of capacity represents. 1 MW of electricity can power between 100 and 200 homes annually. For the Cully residents helped out by this solar park, international conflicts were not going to stop these electrons from flowing.

Initiated by a $4 million Portland Clean Energy Fund grant to Verde, the project seems to have taken a life of its own. At every possible decision point—every element of the layering—the community was centered.

Here are some examples. The credits could have just gone to direct bill payers — homeowners — but instead were designed in ways that include renters, so that those who might need it most also benefit. The installation process could have just gone to the lowest bidder, but instead prioritized training and employing people who face discrimination and exclusion on the open labor market. The maintenance of the land could also have gone to the lowest bidder, but instead is done by members of neighboring Dignity Village, a self-governed community of people previously living on the streets. In fact, the project also supports access to solar power at Dignity Village, thus reducing the risk of fire.

Community members walking between the rows of solar panels. Tatiana explains that the week prior, they’d had sheep grazing at the solar park as a form of regenerative maintenance on the land.

This approach extended to the land itself. Land maintenance could have been a thoughtless “mow and blow,” but Verde treated the land as something alive, not something to beat back. The tour walked through sheep prints, hardened into the recently dried soil. The sheep had brought the grasses down to a manageable level and added their fertilizer. Our guide Tatiana discussed plans for a local organization to plant pollinator-supporting species, at which point someone raised the prospect of growing edibles, and started a connection to someone else who could do that. She also pointed out that the native plant restoration was underway just outside the fenceline, also done by Dignity Village locals.

In other words, this was becoming a place that mattered to people, and even other species. The panels were an anchor for more.

It became a place that mattered because of these incremental decisions. This infrastructure isn’t just an infrastructure for moving electrons around; it has become an infrastructure for much-needed relationships. Each choice shifts the center of gravity towards the community and all its members. That is what grows and strengthens connections.

We usually think about a large solar array as just the physical back end of a bill that arrives monthly, the one that you may or may not be able to pay. At a time when so much seems like it is going off the rails, I am glad that the folks at Verde saw a lot more.

Dr. Dawn Nafus is an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at Oregon State University.

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For years, CUB has expressed mounting concern that continuing to grow the natural gas system will harm current and future Oregonians. This includes customers of Cascade Natural Gas, which serves Bend. Adding gas service to new buildings increases costs to existing customers and adds additional risk in the future.

This April, CUB spoke in support of Bend’s new approach to promote all-electric homes in front of the City Council. See our full letter of support for even more information!

What is Bend Doing to Promote All-Electric Homes?

When a developer builds a new home, apartment building, or even a whole neighborhood, they have to choose—gas or electric. Once a builder makes that choice, the home is basically locked into that energy source going forward. This can impact how future residents stay warm during the winter, heat their water, cook their food, and more.

95% of new single-family homes in Bend are built with gas appliances.

If, down the line, a homeowner needs to get a new appliance, the cheapest option will always be the same appliance as what the home was built with. And renters do not have a choice on what type of appliances are installed or replaced. This creates a big problem for cities that are trying to meet their carbon emissions goals. Building new homes with gas now means many people are stuck with gas for decades down the road.

Bend’s Solution: Fees for New Gas

The Bend Climate Impact Fee will place a one-time fee on new homes built with natural gas. The proposed fee will be based on the size of the home and its anticipated energy use. But developers who build with modern, all-electric systems avoid this charge entirely.

“New all-electric homes cost less to build and less to operate. By incentivizing electrification, Bend can help ensure new homeowners start saving money from day one, with lower monthly bills and protection from volatile natural gas prices. Building smart from the start also avoids the high costs of converting to electric later, locking in savings and comfort for decades to come.” - Energize Bend

This approach is part of a growing “build smart from the start” movement. Just last year, Ashland, Oregon, passed a similar new rule adding a fee for new gas appliances.

The one-time fee will be applied per dwelling, meaning for each single-family home or each unit in multifamily housing. There are three tiers, based on square footage, ranging from $1,415-3,265. Revenue from the fee will go back into Bend to pay for addressing climate change impacts from fossil fuels. This may include funding an incentive program for high-efficiency electric appliances in Bend homes.

Expanding the Gas System is Bad for Existing Customers

Climate change requires reducing the combustion of fossil fuels, including natural gas. The state’s Climate Protection Program requires that gas utilities reduce their emissions by 50% by 2035. The City of Bend has its own climate goals, too, aiming to reduce community-wide fossil fuel use by 40% in 2030 and 70% in 2050.

Adding New Gas Homes Increases Costs for Everyone

It costs Cascade Natural Gas customers approximately $1,300 for each new residential gas connection. In its most recent rate case, Cascade Natural Gas forecasts 16% residential customer growth, or roughly 12,000 new customers.

Adding these new customers would cost all customers an estimated $15.6 million in subsidies just for the hookups alone. These costs are recovered from every Cascade customer, not just those who choose to connect new homes to the gas system.

Regulators found that policies subsidizing new natural gas connections in homes no longer make sense. The Oregon Public Utility Commission has ordered that both Avista Natural Gas and NW Natural Gas phase out these subsidies.

The Bend Climate Impact Fee aligns with the policies and preferences of the people of Oregon to move away from fossil fuels that drive climate change, making our communities more susceptible to deadly heat waves and forest fires.

More Customers Means More Expensive Emissions Reductions

Oregon has set ambitious, multi-layered greenhouse gas reduction goals through legislation and executive action, aiming for significant reductions below 1990 levels. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) developed the Climate Protection Plan. The plan requires natural gas utilities to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 50% from their historic baseline by 2035, and 90% by 2050.

Right now, Cascade needs to reduce approximately 371,854 metric tons of CO2 by 2035. If Cascade were to meet its 16% household growth, that would add about 38,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year. And all of those emissions cost money to reduce. A lot of money.

By avoiding adding new gas homes to the system, Cascade customers could avoid expensive additional emissions reduction costs. Cascade has already spent more than $8 million constructing the Knott Landfill RNG project. The gas utility has also indicated it intends to continue making similar investments and will charge customers for those costs. A far lower-cost strategy would be to avoid adding new customers altogether or to prioritize energy efficiency.

New Gas Impacts Generations of Oregonians

Cascade estimates a 50-year lifespan for the service pipe connecting a home to the gas system. This means a new connection made today stays on customers’ bills through 2076. Even if one of these homes chooses to go electric, those costs remain on everyone’s bills —except for the family that leaves the gas system.

Cascade is projecting to spend hundreds of millions on growing the gas system and expensive options to reduce emissions, driving up home gas bills already. These costs also stay on customer gas bills for decades.

As more and more customers choose to leave the gas system, those that remain will face mounting costs. The people left behind may prefer a gas stove. But many more could be those who do not have the option to go electric, no matter how expensive gas gets. Renters and low-income homeowners are the most likely to get stuck on an expensive gas system, with rising costs and fewer people to spread those costs between.

The Bend Climate Impact Fee creates the opportunity to avoid a future where those who can least afford expensive gas are stuck living in a gas home built today.

When You Are in a Hole, Stop Digging

Will Rogers once said, “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” This is where we are now. Cascade must reduce emissions, but wants to keep digging itself into a deeper and deeper hole of emissions it needs to reduce.

The Bend Climate Impact Fee is a ladder out of Cascade’s emissions hole. Slowing down the growth of the gas system by adding an incentive to builders helps all gas customers.

Under current conditions and projected economic and market trends, CUB believes that policies that move households away from residential gas connections, and toward more efficient energy sources like heat pumps, are in the best interest of gas utility customers.

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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.

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We’ve got actions that community members can take at whatever level of participation you feel comfortable taking on. From sending a simple one-click advocacy email to joining us for a lobby day at the state legislature, there’s something for everyone!

Easy Stuff:

If you’ve never heard of CUB or have only recently started following our work, these actions will be perfect for you. These are easy, quick actions, but meaningful to our work. You may have even already participated in one of these!

Share your personal utility story
Take Action Now: Share your disconnection stories, extreme heat stories, or past due bill stories!

It’s crucial that we talk about how our utilities affect our households and communities. Sharing your story with CUB helps us better understand and advocate for your utility needs and turn them into policies with an impact. Your stories will be shared in public communications and with decision-makers. We will only use your first name, city, and story in CUB materials to protect your privacy.

You can find CUB’s calls for personal stories by checking out our Take Action page or by signing up for our email list.

Fill out an Action Alert (send one-click emails to decision makers)

Use your voice to speak up for affordable, accessible, reliable, and clean utilities! Decision makers need to hear from people like you on utility issues that affect your life. We try to make it easy to get started with one-click email options on the most important issues of the day.

These can be found on our website’s Take Action page, under the Take Action menu. You can also find these in our emails or through our social media.

Donating to CUB
Take Action Now: Donate to CUB and become a supporting member today!

Whether you donate $5, $50, or $500, your support directly funds what CUB staff does best: Conducting economic and legal analyses on utility policy. Engaging community organizations, policymakers, and utility leaders. Advocating to replace unfair and inequitable policies with ones prioritizing communities

Learn more about becoming a CUB member on our Membership page. You can donate directly on our website using the donate button, or you can follow the link to go directly to the donation page.

Follow us on social media and share

Share out information that’s important to you and your community! We share updates on utility bill increases, opportunities to speak out, and resources you can use every day.

• Instagram
• Bluesky
• LinkedIn
• Facebook

Help us put the social in social media by sharing with friends, family, and other organizations in your community.

Get a Little More Involved with CUB

Feel like you’re ready to dive in deeper? These actions will get you more familiar with our work. They’ll also help our organizers understand what issues are important to you, so that they can plug you into the places that are of interest to you.

Schedule a 1:1 with CUB’s Community Organizer
We want to hear from you about the issues you care most about! Whether you have a specific question about your utility bill or you want to get involved with holding utilities accountable, we’re here to help. A 1:1 meeting with CUB’s Community Organizer will get you plugged in to the right places to take action.

You can email us at , or you can request a 1:1 using this Calendly link.

Attend a recurring Community Call
Our monthly community call focuses on introducing you to CUB, our work, and the areas our community organizer is currently working in. The goal is to give you a broad overview of what we are doing and where you can plug in.

The Community Calls also serve as a chance to get a report back on the past month of organizing. You can get 1:1 time to learn more about your specific issue area or brainstorm unique ways to organize around your interests.

Sign up for a Monthly Community Call today!

Want To Get Even More Involved?

For most of these actions, you’ll have to connect with CUB’s Community Organizer to be able to get plugged in. Email outreach@oregoncub.org, or sign up for our monthly community calls. CUB’s Organizer will be able to point you in the right direction and find areas for you to participate in.

These bigger actions are where we really start branching out and getting creative! The most important big actions are getting our community to speak at a public hearing for legislation or new rules for utilities at the Public Utility Commission (PUC). However, one of our Community Organizers’ goals is to find fun and engaging ways to organize around our goals of ensuring all Oregonians have affordable, accessible, reliable, and clean utilities.

Group Field Trips
On CUB’s emissions reduction & electrification campaign, we took out a group of community members interested in community solar on a tour of a Northeast Portland solar park that serves the Cully neighborhood. This tour taught us a lot about what these community projects take to get up and running, as well as the challenges they faced and what kind of advocacy was needed to make the project successful.

Testifying is Better with Friends
For advocacy work, we’ve helped community leaders facing utility issues come down to the Oregon Legislature to give testimony on their experiences. Oregon utility customers are getting squeezed from all areas, and so we fought for a collection of three bills to address affordability concerns in Oregon.

One such community member, pictured above, traveled down to Salem and shared her story with energy affordability, recent price increases on their PGE bill, and how she’s needed to adjust her lifestyle in order to keep her winter-month bills low. Her testimony, along with hundreds of public comments, made a huge difference in getting HB3792 passed through the legislature in 2025. The bill doubled the funding for the Oregon Energy Assistance Program, which was critical when the Trump administration threatened and halted the federal energy assistance program and its funding during the October government shutdown.

Find an Action That’s Right for You
There is a wide variety of big actions for you to take part in:

• Public comment at the state legislature and the Public Utility Commission
• Writing a letter to the editor: reach out to outreach@oregoncub.org to coordinate writing a letter to the editor
• Volunteer with CUB at an event
• Lend your knowledge, expertise, and skill set (example: be a speaker at a workshop, community forum, or event)
• Attend a lobby day, chat with your city and state officials about energy issues impacting you
• Work on one of CUB’s current campaigns with other organizations you’re involved with

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.

Donate to CUB

To keep up with CUB, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and LinkedIn!

In 2025, the Oregon Legislature passed the POWER Act to help utilities rein in data centers’ adding costs to Oregonians’ energy bills. Last fall, Portland General Electric began the work to roll out this new law in practice. In January, Pacific Power started a similar process for its customers.

The problem: Pacific Power is not providing clear information about how it intends to protect Oregonians and hold data centers accountable for their own energy use.

POWER Act (HB 3546)

Over the past decade, data centers have rapidly expanded in Oregon, driving up energy demand and prompting costly new investments in grid infrastructure—a single 30 MW data center uses more power than the City of Ashland. Without proper cost allocation, these expenses are increasingly being shouldered by everyday Oregonians.

The POWER Act (HB 3546) ensures that data centers and cryptocurrency operations pay their fair share for the significant demands they place on Oregon’s electric grid. The new law allows regulators to fairly assign infrastructure and energy costs, rather than passing those costs on to Oregon households and small businesses.

What the POWER Act Does
This new law requires state regulators to create new policies to help protect Oregon households from paying for the energy needs of data centers. 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.

Oregon Public Utility Commission: Protecting Households and Small Businesses

• Create a new customer class for data centers and cryptocurrency shops, starting at 20MW customers
• Protect families and small businesses from costs when bringing these new large energy users online, and from paying for the costs of these large energy users in the future
• Provide a report on other large energy users’ trends and growth in energy needs every two years

Data Centers: Ensuring Energy Investments Are Used and Paid For

• Sign contracts for at least 10 years to ensure expensive investments are worth it
• Pay for a minimum amount of energy in a period of time, even if they use less energy than expected
• Pay an extra fee if they use too much, ensuring excess costs don’t go to households

These measures are key to ensuring that data centers continue to cover the costs they create on our energy system and help utilities plan for a more stable, reliable grid.

Pacific Power is Not Providing a Plan for Data Centers

Pacific Power needs to plan for how it will address data centers in alignment with the POWER Act. Although there is a process to do just this, which has started at the Oregon Public Utility Commission, Pacific Power has not provided any substantial information.

When a utility begins a new proceeding at the Oregon Public Utility Commission, it is typically a long, complex document that advocates take weeks or months to dive into. PGE’s initial filing on its data center investigation was nearly 100 pages long with charts, graphs, and dense economic information. By contrast, Pacific Power’s initial filing on its data center investigation was just 15 pages. And the utility doesn’t seem to be making an effort to support its proposal to regulators.

Of the two main components of the POWER Act, new billing rates for data centers and long-term contracts, Pacific Power is choosing to focus only on contracts. But even the utility’s proposal for how to handle those contracts is lacking. Largely, the company has only restated the language of the law without proposing additional details for how it will comply.

This lack of information puts advocates, like CUB, in an unusual position. How can we weigh in on a plan with no details?

Oregonians Deserve Clear Protections from Data Center Costs

Pacific Power’s proposal (such as it is) does provide a little bit of information. It seems as if the utility does intend to hold data centers responsible for their own energy use through individual contracts. While this sounds good in theory, it is incredibly difficult to do in practice. Pacific Power has not provided any of the details of what this would look like, which is the whole point of this process.

The problem with individual contracts created from scratch for each new data center is that there is no baseline for protecting Oregonians.

If every time a new data center wants to become a Pacific Power customer, there is a new contract drawn up, how can we be sure that we are being protected? These contracts would be negotiated between big tech companies and Pacific Power, without regulators or advocates like CUB at the table. We need Pacific Power to provide more details on what will be covered in these contracts, what protections it is considering, and much, much more.

What is Pacific Power’s methodology for creating new data center contracts? What consumer protections will be included? How will data centers be held responsible for costs shared between all of Pacific Power’s customers?

Data Centers Are Not Box Standard, Neither Are Their Risks

Different sizes of data centers provide different costs and risks for Oregonians and utilities, too. But it’s not clear how Pacific Power intends to factor in differences in data centers when creating new individual contracts.

A small operation can have minimal impact and require very few upgrades to the grid before coming online. But a massive AI data center could use the same amount of electricity a year as some of Oregon’s largest cities and require hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure investments. And these massive operations’ contracts have massive risks if we get them wrong.

Data centers also have different approaches to dealing with their big demands for electricity. Some will rely entirely on the utility to provide electricity, adding a big strain on the system and potentially other customers, like our homes and businesses. But other data centers prefer to bring their own energy assets with them. A data center with battery storage or other energy efficiency tools can limit its impact on the energy grid. And a data center with contracts for energy generation, like with a solar farm, has different impacts on the utilities and surrounding communities.

How is Pacific Power planning to treat different types of data centers? How will energy efficiency and generation assets be considered in contracts? What additional protections will other customers see from the largest, riskiest data centers?

We Need Transparency and Regular Review

Right now, Pacific Power is proposing that advocates and regulators review all new data center contracts before they are enacted. But for all contracts, this review period is set at a standard 60 days. When the 60 days are up, the Commission would need to approve or reject the contract. Without knowing any additional details of the contract process, we cannot know if 60 days will be enough.

What Pacific Power is proposing is also not just for data centers that want to come online this year or next year. The one-off contract approach is how they want to continue dealing with new data centers indefinitely. This could create real problems with oversight down the line.

Can regulators and advocates expect standard contract language? How different will each contract be, requiring larger review periods? How can we regularly review this process to ensure it is working well?

Pacific Power Needs a Real Plan, Not Just an Outline

Without a real plan, CUB is left with more questions than answers. But with this lackluster proposal from Pacific Power, we cannot move forward in holding data centers accountable. We need Pacific Power to come to the table.

Legislators were clear: utilities need to create a plan for how to protect our homes and businesses from data centers’ energy costs.

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.

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On February 18, 2026, the Federal Communications Commission proposed new rulemaking for the federal Lifeline Program. Lifeline is a federal program focused on getting families in need access to voice and internet services.

This rule-making is reminiscent of the past year of budget cuts and attacks on federal assistance programs, just like what we saw happen to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) during the November government shutdown. CUB is sounding the alarm and getting involved federally to protect this program, keeping Oregonians connected to to vital phone and internet services!

What is Oregon Lifeline

The Oregon Lifeline program is a federally funded and state-funded government assistance program focused on helping low-income families get connected with voice and internet services. Additionally, the program also seeks to help Native American communities, which have historically lacked connectivity and digital equity.

While Oregon has its own funding source for the Oregon Lifeline, which is funded by small fees from internet and phone bills, the amount in our state fund is not enough to make up for the loss of federal assistance for Oregonians who rely on the program.

The big impact on Oregon would be the inability to keep our most in-need community members connected to the internet. The program currently helps provide $100 rebates for phones and internet devices, and this rulemaking could jeopardize that assistance.

FCC Proposes Rules That Limit Access to Lifeline

The FCC claims that changes are needed to ensure Americans are receiving funds for the program, as well as to strengthen the integrity of Lifeline. At its core, it’s the same argument used for cutting and scaling back other federal assistance programs.

The Trump administration’s FCC is specifically citing fraud from deceased people receiving the program’s benefits. Currently, Texas, California, and Oregon are the only states exempt from the death check required for enrollment into Lifeline. FCC Chair Brendan Carr claims that 80% of fraud is centered in California, and the commission has already taken steps to rectify this. The staff at the Oregon Public Utility Commission regularly reviews and addresses this issue as part of administering the state program.

So why add additional steps that could harm those in the program?

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez has said that the proposed rules take some actions to fight fraud. In reality, it would result in less access to the Lifeline program for low-income families who rely on it. This is just another excuse to roll back federal funding of assistance programs that working-class Oregonians desperately need.

The impact of changing the rules in the name of “fraud” would mean that it would be even harder for households to receive help. The changes could cut many off from phone and internet services. More burdensome verification processes and requirements could exclude immigrants, unhoused people, and more. It could also make it impossible to access assistance if you don’t already have phone or internet service—the exact reason why many people need these funds!

What is CUB doing about this?

CUB is joining other advocates in pushing back against this proposal. The FCC currently has a public comment period open through May 4, 2026. Here, communities can share their thoughts related to the proposed rule changes. This will be a critical place for CUB members and Oregonians to take action and ensure that Lifeline is preserved in Oregon.

Take Action: Contact Your Legislators

We’re also asking that Oregonians reach out to their federal lawmakers and urge them to support this issue.

Your U.S. legislators need to hear from you! You can call or email your legislators directly and ask them to support protecting the Lifeline program (find your elected officials here).

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.

Donate to CUB

To keep up with CUB, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and LinkedIn!

NW Natural shut off some families during the promised disconnection pause for owing as little as $50.

This is unacceptable. CUB is pushing regulators to direct NW Natural to make this right with the families who were impacted. We have also proposed punitive measures against the state’s largest gas utility for this fiasco.

Broken Promises

From mid-November through December, PGE, Pacific Power, and NW Natural agreed to pause disconnections for households with low incomes who receive monthly bill discounts or anyone who had a medical certificate.

These important, but limited, protections came on the heels of the longest government shutdown in US history. The shutdown delayed the distribution of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funds. These public programs help keep low-income Oregonians fed and connected to power. Additionally, during this time, many changes to federal social safety nets and other negative federal actions worsened energy security.

Read More: Legislators Secure Utility Disconnection Moratoriums for Some Customers (CUB Blog)

But this entire period, NW Natural continued to disconnect protected customers as if they never made this promise. Between November and December 2025, the gas utility disconnected 1,098 total households. This includes 198 wrongful disconnections for households NW Natural knows have low incomes.

Nearly 20% of the families that NW Natural shut off in November and December were promised protection. This is unacceptable.

How Did NW Natural Allow Wrongful Shutoffs to Happen?

On February 12th, CUB was assessing 2025 disconnection data from NW Natural and noticed a big problem. There were bill discount program customers disconnected in November and December, even though there were supposed to be protections in place. We immediately jumped into action to figure out what happened and reached out to the utility. A week later, NW Natural’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Resource Planning contacted CUB’s Executive Director, Bob Jenks, to inform him of the Company’s error.

. In formal responses to CUB’s requests for information, NW Natural stated to regulators that it “discovered that we did not implement the voluntary temporary winter disconnect moratorium for bill discount programs as intended.” It further noted that “processes were in place to do so.” The mistake was made due to an “internal miscommunication.”

After over a month of investigation and back and forth, we are still not satisfied with this explanation. When a utility makes a commitment to Oregonians, legislators, and regulators, we expect them to hold their word. No one in Oregon can choose their utility company, making the impact of these broken promises even more difficult to swallow.

A Fiasco for Many Oregon Families

NW Natural has claimed that its mistake was made due to an “internal miscommunication.” But this is not a miscommunication; it is a fiasco.

According to NW Natural, a total of 198 households (603 people) with low incomes were wrongfully shut off. Of those families:

• 99 homes were reconnected the same day or the next day
• 40 households were disconnected for 2-13 days
• 16 families were disconnected for two weeks or more

One household spent 78 days without gas service in the middle of winter because of a $54 balance.

There are at most 35 households that NW Natural has not been able to make any contact with and remain without gas service. This includes 6 households for which the utility does not have up-to-date contact information.

Cascading Impacts of Losing Gas Service in the Winter

When a home’s gas gets shut off, it can very easily cause a devastating cascading effect for that family. We use utilities in so many ways in our home: physical safety and comfort, food preparation, healthcare, and more. Losing gas comes with many hidden costs, especially for low-income households that can least afford these expenses.

For those with medical conditions that are impacted by temperature, a shutoff can be life-threatening. Losing gas for heating can quickly turn into an unsafe situation for many Oregonians, especially if temperatures go below freezing during the winter. It can also mean losing a way to cook food on a stove or oven, forcing more expensive options for a hot meal. And going without hot water is more than just an inconvenience.

Shutoffs can also cause families to lose their housing entirely. Without heating, renters can be evicted. Oregon is facing a housing crisis. We should not be continuing shutoff policies that contribute to homelessness.

NW Natural Must Make Up for Their Mistake

CUB is heavily pressuring NW Natural to make up for this massive mistake to impacted families. While the utility has taken some steps, it is not enough.

So far, NW Natural has taken three actions:

• Refunded all impacted customer accounts for the fees associated with the disconnection
• Attempted contact or made contact with those customers who still remained disconnected in mid-February to reconnect them
• Credited $150 to all impacted customer accounts

But CUB does not agree that giving a family $150 for spending days, weeks, or months without gas during a disconnection pause is adequate.

In collaboration with other advocates, CUB is proposing going much further.

For impacted families, CUB is asking NW Natural to:

• Zero out past-due balances from the time of disconnection to now
• Pay each household $50 plus $25 per day for each day they were incorrectly shut off (e.g., disconnected 7 days = $225)
• Raise the disconnection “trigger” amount to at least $150 past due for customers on payment plans, instead of $50

These costs would come at the expense of the utility, not be passed off to other customers.

Second, CUB has proposed adding a $10,000 penalty for each of the 198 impacted households ($1,980,000). This would be in the form of a “disallowance,” or withholding what NW Natural can collect on customer bills. We also asked regulators to conduct an audit on the utility’s Customer Service and Customer Information Systems to ensure something like this cannot happen again.

Nothing will fully make up for a wrongful disconnection. But we need NW Natural to play a bigger role in fixing this fiasco.

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.

Donate to CUB

To keep up with CUB, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and LinkedIn!

Once finalized, residential and industrial customers in Wallowa County, Monroe, and Lakeview, Oregon, will be served by publicly-owned utilities. Pacific Power’s sale will impact around 10,000 customers, or about 1.5% of its Oregon customer base.

Regulators at the Public Utility Commission will have final authority over the sale, and approval could take up to 12 months to complete. This is a big change for some Pacific Power customers. CUB is keeping a close eye on this process to ensure what’s best for customers is front and center.

Pacific Power to Sell Parts of Oregon Territory to Publicly-Owned Utilities

Pacific Power has announced its intent to sell part of Oregon’s service area to several publicly-owned utilities. The Wallowa County service area will be sold to the Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative. The Monroe area will be sold to the Blachly-Lane Electric Cooperative. And the Lakeview area will be sold to the Surprise Valley Electrification Corporation.

Who will be impacted by the sale:

• Service areas totalling just under 10,000 customers
• 5,514 customers in Wallowa County
• 1,162 customers in the Monroe area
• 2,228 customers in the Lakeview area

Regulators Must Sign Off

Before the change is finalized, it has to be approved by regulators at the Oregon Public Utility Commission.

The process is likely to take about a year for the Commission to make a decision on whether this sale can move forward. Pacific Power will continue providing customers with utility services until the deal is finalized by regulators.

How this Sale Will Impact Oregon Customers

The lengthy review process means that Oregon customers won’t see any changes immediately. If the sale is approved, customers in the affected service areas will see their utilities transition to publicly-owned utilities at the beginning of 2027, at the earliest.

Selling these territories to publicly-owned utilities will have a big impact on some Oregon customers. In 2024, Pacific Power charged around 14.74 cents per kilowatt to residential customers. The same year, the publicly-owned utilities Pacific Power is selling to charged the following rates to residential customers:

• The Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative charges 10.08 cents per kilowatt.
• The Blachly-Lane Electric Cooperative charges 14.92 cents per kilowatt.
• The Surprise Valley Electrification Corporation charges 12.77 cents per kilowatt.

Big Takeaway: Customers in Wallowa County and the Lakeview area will likely see a decrease in monthly power bills! This could save households big money in the long run. Customers in the Monroe area, who will be served by Blachly-Lane Electric Cooperative, could see their bills increase by a small percentage.

Why are rates lower for most publicly-owned utilities? Overall, consumer-owned utilities, like co-ops or municipal utilities, charge lower energy bills compared to for-profit utilities. This is because of contracts with the Bonneville Power Administration and the region’s abundant (and cheap) hydroelectric power. It is also because customers of non-profit utilities do not need to pay premiums for shareholders, like with for-profit utilities.

Many questions arise because of these changes. Pacific Power and the publicly-owned utilities will need to figure out how this impacts utility discounts and debt forgiveness programs going forward. Additionally, once the sale is finalized, regulators won’t have a final say on these issues because publicly-owned utilities are regulated locally, not at the state level.

CUB will keep pushing to ensure customers are prioritized at every stage of this sale. We’ll keep customers informed as we learn the next steps.

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Understanding Utility Billing for Renters

In your rental agreement, your landlord must outline how you will be paying for utilities. There are two ways that you can be charged for utilities for your home:

• You pay for your home’s utility usage directly to the utility company
• Your landlord pays the utilities for the whole building and charges you based on your unit size and/or how many people live in your apartment.

Paying the Utility Provider Directly

In this form of billing, a tenant has an account directly with the utility company. Bills are charged by your actual usage each month. Here, the utility tracks how much your individual unit uses each month through a meter specific to your unit.

Upon signing the rental agreement, a tenant sets up their own utility bill directly with the utility company. If there is an outstanding bill from a previous tenant, you are not responsible for covering that amount.

Under Oregon law, if there is an outstanding bill, the new tenant can pay the outstanding amount and deduct the amount from the rent. Or, the new tenant can terminate the rental agreement by giving the landlord actual (documented) notice 72 hours prior to the date of termination, and the reason for the termination.

Even if you are paying the utility directly for your unit’s usage, you may also be responsible for common area utility fees for the building. The common area fee would be paid to your landlord, not the utility company.

Paying Your Landlord for Utilities

In this type of billing, the utility usage is only tracked for the entire building, not individual usage. The building owner is responsible for paying the utility company and charges each unit based on estimated usage. Your landlord cannot charge you more for your unit’s utilities than they are paying to the utility company.

Your landlord or property manager can calculate the utility charge for each unit based on a variety of criteria. This is usually calculated based on occupancy, square footage, or some combination of the two.

If your landlord is charging you for utilities, that needs to be included in your rental agreement. Landlords must also be able to provide a justification for how the charge is determined. If your landlord does not provide a copy of the utility provider’s bill, you are entitled to ask for that information.

For more information on how a landlord can break down utility costs, check out the CUB Blog - What’s the RUB?” Utility Billing and Renters’ Rights from May 2021.

Common Area Utility Fees

Regardless of whether you pay your unit’s utilities to your landlord or to the utility company, you may also be responsible for a common area utility fee. Here, the landlord or property manager charges tenants a fixed amount for utilities that are used in the common areas of the building, such as hallways, lobbies, and elevators.

Common area fees must be listed separately from any charges for your home’s utility usage. Any charges for utilities used outside of your unit must be clearly laid out in your rental agreement.

Can Landlords Change Utility Charges Mid-Lease?

Your rental agreement is a binding contract signed by you and your landlord. How your landlord outlines the utility charges in the rental agreement should be what you can expect for the length of your agreement. The only way the terms of a rental agreement can be changed is at the time of renewal or through an addendum that both you and your landlord sign. If your landlord attempts to change your rental agreement before your contract is up, you have the right to refuse to sign.

Changing the terms of your utility charges or common area fees could change the language of the rental agreement. If you are concerned that your landlord is violating the terms of your rental agreement by changing how utilities are charged, we recommend seeking legal advice from a qualified lawyer.

While we at CUB are always happy to discuss your utility bill and provide resources, your individual case may best be handled by an attorney. We recommend reaching out to the Oregon State Bar’s attorney referral service, which can put you in touch with an attorney who practices landlord/tenant law in your area. If you can’t afford an attorney, we also recommend reaching out to the Community Alliance of Tenants, the Legal Aid Services of Oregon, or Oregon Law Help.

Stay Up to Date on Oregon Utility Issues

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Now, regulators at the Public Utility Commission (PUC) have begun to implement the FAIR Energy Act. Over the next 18 months, regulators will develop new rules and processes for when and how utilities can request rate increases. Our staff is deeply involved in this process and is working hard to ensure the new law is rolled out fairly. Read on to learn about what’s next for the FAIR Energy Act.

FAIR Energy Act Implementation

HB 3179 requires energy rate increase requests to be spread out to at least every 3 years by 2027, with added customer protections before next year. It also prevents increases in home energy rates during peak winter months, when energy usage and bills are highest. And it increases transparency so consumers know what they are paying for and what to expect from any proposed changes to energy bills.

Together, we can expect these changes to slow the pace of energy bill hikes and help customers be more prepared for future increases.

Multiple Stages to Making FAIR Energy a Reality

Last Fall, regulators at the Public Utility Commission opened four dockets as part of its process to roll out the FAIR Energy Act over multiple stages. The five main components include:

• Building frameworks for required multi-year plans for rate increases
• Set a schedule for when utilities can request major bill increases
• Banning winter rate increases for home customers
• Customer impact analysis
• Utility reporting expectations (bill increases and what costs are causing rates to go up)

Regulators plan to accomplish the big goals set out in this process by mid-2027.

Setting Customer-Facing Reporting Details & Expectations (Docket UM 2405)

Big Goals: Set expectations for utilities on how public reporting for bill increases should look and what needs to be included.
Timeline: Expected end of March 2027

Regulators have opened a policy investigation, which has three phases. It will ensure that utilities, stakeholders, and the regulator are on the same page when it comes to how the reporting requirements utilities now have will look to customers and advocates. CUB and our partners will work hard to make sure that this reporting for you is easily accessible and understandable.

See the full docket! Docket UM 2405 is available on the Public Utility Commission website.

Writing the Rules for Utilities

Regulators will use three rulemaking processes to address some of the most pressing issues with implementing the FAIR Energy Act.

Multi-Year Rate Plan Framework (Docket AR 676)

Big Goal: Spacing out gas and electric rate increase requests to at least every three years.
Timeline:Mid 2027

Regulators opened a process to develop the specific rules for spreading out utility rate increase requests to at least every three years by 2027. The goal of developing this process is to lessen the frequency and number of times utilities raise customers’ energy bills. They will also stagger when gas and electric utilities can ask for more, so customers aren’t hit with two energy bill increases in one year.

In the past, it was uncommon for utilities to ask for big bill increases every year. But now, it’s become standard for utilities to make requests most years. These rules will help slow down the pace of requests, protecting your home energy bills. Utilities can also request approval for smaller rate increases as needed for one-off or specific programs. Before the FAIR Energy Act passed, utilities were asking for more one-off requests, more often, making it difficult to track how much energy bills increased year over year.

With these rules, regulators can better control when rate increases happen. Right now, utilities choose when they want to ask regulators to change billing rates, and regulators have to respond. The longer process not only protects customers from frequent increases but also allows regulators and advocates to dig deeper into what utilities are asking for in their requests.

The FAIR Energy Act allows utilities to ask for an exception, mainly for emergencies or other unforeseen catastrophic events. CUB expects that a set schedule will lessen the financial impacts on customers.

See the full docket! Docket AR 676 is available on the Public Utility Commission website.

2026-2027 Bill Increase Request Schedule & Exceptions (AR 677)

Big Goal: Create a process for bill increases before the multi-year rate plan rules go into effect in 2027.
Timeline: End of April 2026

Last year, regulators started work on setting an initial schedule for how and when utilities can request to increase rates between now and 2027. This is happening while regulators develop the permanent multiyear plan rules, which will go into effect in 2027.

This process will set a schedule for utilities to spread out bill increase requests. Regulators will prevent multiple utilities from asking for increases at the same time. Spreading it out benefits regulators, energy advocates, and customers. The rules established in this process will directly inform and enhance the rulemaking to establish a long-term ratemaking framework.

On December 17, 2025, the Commission held a workshop with advocates to get the ball rolling on developing the interim rate case schedule. Based on that conversation, regulators published a draft for setting this rate schedule and exception process. The Commission is set to decide that schedule by the end of March 2026.

See the full docket! Docket AR 677 is available on the Public Utility Commission website.

AR 678 – Winter Moratorium & Reporting Rules

Big Goals: Set simple rules banning utilities from raising energy bills in the winter. Develop rules for how utilities report upcoming rate increases to the public.
Timeline: Expected end of March 2026

Lastly, regulators opened a process to develop rules for the winter ban on rate increases from November 1 to March 31. This docket also covers annual reporting by utilities and studying costs associated with rate increases. Moving the bill increases out of winter, when energy usage is highest, helps customers stay connected to life-saving power during winter weather.

For reporting, CUB, along with other energy justice advocates, asked regulators to approve additional customer protections in the rules. Our suggestions included more disconnection data, trends in past-due bills, and expected utility profits. Unfortunately, regulators moved forward without adopting our recommendations.

CUB will keep pushing for affordable energy bills to be a top priority throughout these conversations. Regulators need to consider the whole picture, including the cost of living and rising disconnection rates, when considering utility requests.

See the full docket! Docket AR 678 is available on the Public Utility Commission website.

Next Steps

Over the next 18 months, the Oregon Public Utility Commission will transition the FAIR Energy Act from law into practice. This implementation phase is critical because it will impact how rate increases are handled for years to come.

CUB will continue working towards affordability and transparency throughout this process.

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.

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Now, PGE’s new proposal shows significant improvements, thanks to public pressure and CUB pushback. We still have a long way to go to ensure data centers are accountable for their own energy needs, though. With the public process wrapping up, it is now in the regulators’ hands to decide how PGE data centers will be responsible for energy costs.

PGE Has Made Significant Improvements

While CUB is not fully satisfied with the changes PGE has made to its proposal for how it will charge data centers, we have seen many positive changes.

These improvements came after CUB and other advocates pushed back hard on policies that would have let data centers off easy. More than 1,300 community members also submitted public comments on this proposal, one of the largest volumes in recorded history at the Oregon Public Utility Commission.

Even Higher Billing Rates for Data Centers

NEW: PGE is proposing to increase data center billing rates by 26%
The old proposal only increased billing rates by 18%

PGE’s new proposal shows that the first draft was going easy on data centers. With the utility’s new analysis, results show that data centers haven’t been covering their own costs. This is further proof that the POWER Act was not just necessary, but also will have an impact on power bills.

As more data centers come online, these new rates will have an even bigger impact on household and other business customers. This current process is shifting the accounting of who pays for past investments. As new data centers create more investments, we can prevent Oregonians from having to pay for data centers’ energy costs in the first place.

CUB and analysts at the Oregon Public Utility Commission agree that raising data center billing rates needs to go even further than a 26% increase.

Directly Assigning Big Investments to Data Centers

NEW: PGE is proposing assigning the costs for some big data-center-caused investments to data centers for 10 years
The old proposal only charged data centers for 3 years

When data centers come online and require big upgrades to provide service just to them, they should be responsible for these costs. We have seen a few examples of expensive substations in Hillsboro that are only connected to data centers, with no benefit to residential or other customers.

In the previous proposal, PGE planned to only assign costs for three years. While this is an improvement, it is not enough. Many utility investments are meant to last for 50 years. Customers slowly pay for those costs over those 50 years, along with paying for the profits utilities are allowed to make from investments. PGE is proposing that data centers only pay for the first 10 years of the 50-year costs, with all other customers, including households, picking up the next 40 years of investment costs.

CUB has continued to push regulators to charge data centers for the full cost of investments that only benefit data centers.

Many Issues Still Remain in the Path to Holding Data Centers Accountable

While we have seen improvements in the big issues CUB had concerns about from PGE’s initial proposal, there are still more issues remaining. This list for the Oregon Public Utility Commission to rule on is long: over 50 items remain.

Some of the big issues remaining include:

• Terms of the required 10-year contracts for different sizes of data centers
• Penalties for data centers using more energy than projected
• Deposits and protections for data centers closing before contract expiration
• And much, much more!

While much debate remains on the specifics of data centers’ contracts with utilities, CUB remains focused on how costs are assigned to these customers. These contracts set details for how much electricity and for how long data centers will be charged. But without setting the rates for how much to charge per unit of energy, we cannot truly hold data centers accountable for paying for their own energy use.

As of February 24, 2026, the record for this case has been closed. Now, it is up to the Oregon Public Utility Commission to decide how data centers will be charged by PGE. A final decision is expected by April 30, 2026.

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.

Donate to CUB

To keep up with CUB, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and LinkedIn!