Oregon enacts 2040 clean energy mandate

Oregon governor Kate Brown (D) has approved a clean energy mandate that will eradicate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the state's largest utilities over the coming decades.

The governor yesterday signed the bill, HB 2021, giving Portland General Electric, PacifiCorp and other privately owned electricity suppliers until 2040 to eliminate GHGs from their power mixes.

Leading up to 2040, utilities must reach 80pc and 90pc reductions by 2030 and 2035, respectively, as measured against a 2010-2012 baseline of average emissions from electricity sold to retail customers. Power suppliers can use any form of electricity, including hydropower, "that is generated and may be stored in a manner that does not emit greenhouse gas into the atmosphere."

The law also prohibits siting new natural gas-fired stations.

But it will have little effect on the state's renewable portfolio standard (RPS), which requires electric suppliers to meet 50pc of their retail sales with qualifying renewables, such as wind, solar and only some hydropower, by 2040. The new regulations do raise an RPS carve-out for small-scale renewables that supports projects up to 20MW and certain biomass generators, to 10pc by 2030, up from the current 8pc by 2025.

"Governor Brown has made climate action a top priority in Oregon, which is why today she signed HB 2021 into law, setting the fastest 100pc clean electricity requirement in the country," her office said.

The office said Brown would make additional statements at an upcoming bill signing ceremony.

The new rules do not impact rural electric cooperatives or the state's other investor-owned utility, Idaho Power, which serves parts of Malheur County on the state's eastern border. Lawmakers exempted rural suppliers because they already rely heavily on carbon-free hydropower.

Oregon received 37.2pc of its electricity from hydropower in 2019, while coal and natural gas accounted for 27.6pc and 24.8pc, respectively, of the electricity supply that year, according to the state's Department of Energy.

Utilities will still have to stop using coal-fired generation by 2035 under a previously enacted mandate.

Neither PacifiCorp nor Portland General Electric immediately returned requests for comment.

By Patrick Zemanek