Oregon is making progress in building its clean energy capacity, despite major federal disinvestment, according to a new report.
The League of Conservation Voters’ 2025 report showed 30 states passed and implemented policies to cut energy costs, advance clean energy and tackle climate change last year.
Eliza Walton, coalition director for the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, said the report makes it clear clean energy is still the most affordable option for ratepayers.
“But affordability doesn’t just happen automatically,” Walton pointed out. “We have to keep going and doing more to make sure that savings actually reach people, and not just utilities or large corporations.”
The report highlighted Oregon’s POWER Act, passed last year, which created a new rate class for very large energy users, like data centers, so households and small businesses are no longer subsidizing those facilities’ energy use.
Walton pointed to Oregon’s performance-based rate-making law for electric utilities, also passed last year. It allows the Oregon Public Utility Commission to set targets, incentives and penalties to align utility-company profits with public-interest goals for the first time.
“Instead of being rewarded for just building more infrastructure, utilities are now expected to deliver outcomes that people care about,” Walton emphasized. “Like keeping bills affordable, improving reliability and reducing pollution.”
Walton argued federal disinvestment from clean energy goals slows down projects, raises costs and creates uncertainty for utilities, workers and communities. She added it also means state policy matters more than ever.
She stressed Oregon’s progress shows what’s possible, although with rising demand, there is still a long way to go to meet the state’s climate goals.
By Isobel Charle, Public News Service
