Pop quiz: What do wind, waves, sunlight and manure have in common?
Answer: They're some of the renewable energy resources that the state's largest utilities would develop to meet the requirements of Oregon's proposed Renewable Energy Standard Act.
The bill would require utilities to get 25 percent of their energy from renewable resources by the year 2025 - a challenging but achievable goal that should become part of Oregon law. It is the centerpiece of Gov. Ted Kulongoski's strategy to combat global warming, which the Democratic governor presciently recognizes as the most significant threat facing the state's environment.
Despite the measure's scope and complexity, and despite the intense scrutiny of business and utility interests, the Senate voted 20-10 last month to pass the bill. The proposal's future is uncertain in the House, where Republicans are mounting a last-ditch effort to defeat it.
Their opposition is both puzzling and frustrating. The bill and its companion measures represent more than four years of work and compromise, involving countless meetings with staff, public officials and interest groups. Despite critics' claims, the proposal won't force rate increases and won't impose undue constraints on either large or small utilities.
When Senate Bill 838 comes up for a floor vote in the House, perhaps as early as next week, lawmakers should keep in mind the broad support for this bill throughout the state. In addition to environmental organizations, supporters include consumer groups such as OSPIRG, the Citizens' Utility Board and the watchdog Utility Reform projects - groups that can be depended upon to oppose any proposal that might impose a hardship on ratepayers.
Other supporters include Oregon's largest utilities - Portland General Electric and PacificCorp - and a host of rural organizations, businesses and public officials who are eager to cash in on the development of a biofuel industry that would turn forest debris and farm crops into affordable, low-emission fuels. Meanwhile, companies up and down the Oregon Coast are planning to make the state a global leader in wave-generated electricity.
Some lawmakers have warned that the bill could impose a heavy burden on rural electric co-ops. But those utilities have been more than adequately protected by provisions that make it easier for them to comply with the bill's requirements.
In the absence of presidential and congressional leadership on global warming, states such as Oregon have begun filling the void with their own policies. SB 838 would put Oregon in the forefront of this growing states-based effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It would give Oregon one of the most ambitious, creative and aggressive renewable energy standards in the nation, while also providing a welcome boost for the state's long-suffering rural economy.
Oregon lawmakers should approve this visionary legislation.
