Oregon legislators propose ban on coal-fired power
February 4, 2015 | By
Doug Peeples
A bill introduced in the Oregon Legislature would ban state utilities from generating coal-fired power or buying it by 2025 and requires instead that they develop wind and solar power to make up the difference. The reaction to the legislation has been predictable: environmental organizations generally support it while utilities in the state talk about the billions of dollars such a relatively abrupt transition would require.
Under the provisions of the bill, natural gas would not be an acceptable replacement for the shortfall coal plant closures and prohibitions would create. Today, Portland General Electric (PGE) has the only in-state coal-fired plant. However, both PGE and PacifiCorp, the state's other utility buy power from other plants out of state. Coal power generation makes up about two-thirds of the power PacifiCorp sells and about one-third of PGE's energy supply, according to The Oregonian. Oregon is ranked as the third largest renewable energy producer in the state. Hydropower generates about two-thirds of the power the state generates, and accounts for a little less than half of the electricity used in the state after subtracting exports to other states. PGE and other large utilities in Oregon are already required to include 25 percent renewables in their energy mix by 2025 and PGE has been active in acquiring wind energy and other sources. And PGE will shut down its coal plant in Boardman in 2020. But PacifiCorp owns a coal plant in Wyoming and both it and PGE have interests in another. Environmental groups say most state residents support moving to renewables, but as the Oregonian reported, they can choose to pay roughly 10 percent more on their electric bills to contribute to renewable energy credits yet the number of customers who choose to do so is about 10 percent. Bob Jenks, executive director for the Citizens Utility Board of Oregon, was quoted as saying, " Ultimately we're going to have to reduce our emissions and close the plants. The theory here is let's phase out in a reasonable timetable of ten years and do this in a way that's least cost to taxpayers." PacifiCorp spokesman Paul Vogel sees it differently. "It's going to be in the billions and billions of dollars and how that breaks out for Oregon, it's inestimable. It's not the right way to go about this transition that we all agree that we need to be on." Either way, the bill is not a finished product. The bill was sponsored by Democratic senators Tobias Read and Chris Edwards, chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources with strong support from the Sierra Club, Renewables Northwest Project and more recently, the Oregon Conservation Network. Read and Edwards acknowledge that they are weighing what the legislation could mean in terms of cost and other considerations. Edwards also acknowledged that the bill as it is now "needs a lot of work." For more:
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