I could do without the partisan bashing of Democrats, but it’s also true that they left themselves wide open for this sort of attack by coming up with the scheme to plunder money collected only from PGE customers and supposed to be used for new energy efficiency gains in order to pay off an overdue debt. [All emphasis added by me.]

If OMSI merits state support, then it merits support from the whole state, not just from PGE customers (including those who live well away from Portland) who contribute to the Energy Trust of Oregon.

PGE ratepayers called upon to pay OMSI’s debt

RON EACHUS

July 2, 2007

Thanks to the Oregon Legislature, PGE ratepayers are being forced to make a $4.6 million “donation” to the private non-profit Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland. At the last minute they sneaked it into a Christmas tree omnibus spending bill. And in this one final fit of spending exuberance, they undermined what has been the foundation of Oregon’s energy policy for the past 30 years.

OMSI is behind on payments to the state for $15 million it borrowed in 1992 to help finance construction of its new building, including energy-efficiency measures. Since 1997 the Legislature has been using general fund tax dollars to support OMSI’s loan payments.

But this legislature decided it would make PGE ratepayers cover the debt by raiding the pool of dollars ratepayers pay PGE to cover costs of programs for new energy conservation. Ironically, Salem, Keizer, Silverton and other Mid-Valley PGE customers have to donate to OMSI. PacifiCorp’s Portland customers don’t. Unfair? Yes! Illegal? Probably.

When we should be acquiring every possible kilowatt-hour of energy efficiency, the Legislature is diverting to OMSI nearly one-fifth of what ratepayers will pay PGE this year for needed energy-efficiency programs. It doesn’t buy a single kilowatt of new conservation. Instead it forces ratepayers to forgo savings to pay off the debt of a private entity for something that happened 15 years ago.

…

Cost-effective energy efficiency has been the first rule of energy policy in Oregon because it lowers overall costs and reduces bills without sacrificing outcomes. Because a kilowatt-hour of power saved was a resource just as one generated from a power plant, the costs of utility-run programs were included in rates.

…

This Legislature’s pillaging of these ratepayer-funded energy-efficiency programs demonstrates how shallow the Democratic leadership’s alleged energy policy really is. The renewable portfolio standard for higher-cost resources was pushed through based on economic development grounds, while energy efficiency, the cheapest resource, was an after-thought.

…

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Ron Eachus of Salem is a former legislator and a former chairman of the Oregon Public Utility Commission. His column appears every other Monday. Send e-mail to re4869@comcast.net.

Remember, there is a good solution to this problem: if the good Governor will simply veto HB 2210 then the budget will be $5 million better off, which could then be given to OMSI without expensive litigation that the state seems likely to lose.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2007 at 10:33 am and is filed under Energy Future, Environment, General, Tax Reform/Tax Fairness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.