SALEM - After a vigorous debate, the Oregon Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would require the state's largest utilities to eventually draw 25 percent of their power from renewable sources such as wind, waves, sunlight and manure.
A centerpiece of Gov. Ted Kulongoski's effort to reduce global warming, supporters argued the bill also would help insulate Oregonians from volatile fossil fuel prices.
The measure passed despite opposition from Republicans who said it might result in higher costs for consumers by forcing new technologies into the market before they are cost competitive.
``This bill is one of the strongest actions this body can take to do our share to curb global warming and protect our increasingly fragile planet,'' said Sen. Ben Westlund, D-Bend. ``It helps brand us as the environmentally clean state that we are. ... This has
huge implications not only for today but for our future.''
The bill would require Oregon's major utilities to obtain 5 percent of their power from renewable resources by 2011, increasing by increments to 25 percent by 2025.
The Eugene Water & Electric Board's Jason Heuser said the bill had been reworked enough this session to win the utility's support. Earlier, EWEB generally agreed with the concept but had concerns that its own efforts to expand into renewable sources such as wind wouldn't be taken into account when determining whether the bill's standards were being met. "It's hard to argue with all the progress that was made since (the bill's) inception," he said.
But most Senate Republicans said the bill unfairly moves the cost and risk of developing new renewable energy sources from private businesses to residential and industrial electricity consumers.
``This is a huge shift of a burden to two groups of people that we need desperately,'' said Sen. Larry George of Sherwood. ``One is our businesses, and two are the most vulnerable citizens who can't afford to pay higher rates.''
The bill allows utilities to recover the cost of investing in new generating sources, such as wind farms, through increases to customers but includes a provision that could release them from the mandate if their costs increase by more than 4 percent of their revenue in one year.
Although the legislation allows electricity generated from new ``low-impact'' dams to count toward the standard, existing hydroelectric generation is not included under the bill.
Oregon gets about 40 percent of its electricity from hydroelectric dams, according to the state's Department of Energy.
Reporter David Steves contributed to this report.
