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February Events | 2012 Everybody Wins in a Green Economy OREP will present Everybody Wins in a Green Economy. Those who are heavily invested in maintaining the status quo of our fossil fuel economy have rather successfully convinced the American people and the media that we can either have jobs and a strong economy OR protect the environment. Nothing could be further from the truth. A green energy economy provides more jobs per kWh and more jobs per $ spent on energy while moving us away from dependence on finite fossil fuel resources that take ever more extreme and destructive measures to extract from the depths of the earth. Judy Barnes and Kathleen Newman of OREP will present information about policies that can move us rapidly toward a renewable energy economy while providing jobs and revenue in our local economies. Q&A and discussion will follow. For information contact Kathleen at 503-648-5218 or kathleen@oregonrenewables.com. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Task Force is charged with making recommendations to the Governor on coordinated actions and initiatives that the State of Oregon can take to:
The Task Force has five Design Teams: Energy Efficiency and Demand Management; Resource Mix; Siting Issues; Transportation; and Governance. Website: Describes Ten Year Energy Plan design teams and their charges Timeline: The design teams have approximately two months (Jan-Feb) before they submit their final recommendations to the Governor, the Governor will take about three weeks to finalize the draft that will be put out for stakeholder comment - sometime in late March. If you are signed up on the website, you will be notified about the public input process. There will also be some sort of public notice. Register: All those with an interest in Oregon's energy future and creating good, green jobs will want to have input to the 10-year Energy Plan. Stay informed by signing up to receive updates at the 10-Year Energy Plan website. OREP-Sierra Club of Oregon: Joint Letter on FIT Design Principles to Governor Kitzhaber Dear Governor Kitzhaber: We support your goal of establishing a ten-year energy plan for Oregon. Designed and implemented correctly, the energy plan will stimulate job growth throughout the state, attract business to Oregon, reverse the flow of energy dollars sent out of Oregon, combat climate change and make Oregon a national model for sustainable prosperity. The decisions we make at this pivotal time have profound impacts for future generations. Capital investments made now can bind us to decades of fossil-based energy generation whose profits flow out of state; or conversely can produce widespread local ownership, local job creation, and leadership in renewable energy and conservation. The widely dispersed nature of renewable energy resources and the urgent need to deploy them present Oregon with new opportunities for widespread economic development and broad participation in the production and sale of electricity. We believe this calls for a shift in the way we produce energy in Oregon and our energy policy must reflect this shift by assigning value to the non-energy objectives of inclusiveness, sustainable economic development and environmental impacts, as well as cost-effectiveness. We support a broad, robust statewide feed-in tariff as a highly effective policy mechanism to lower barriers to participation in the clean energy market, encourage rapid deployment of renewable energy, reduce the cost of renewable energy and bring sustainable economic growth to Oregon. A just and effective FIT program for renewable energy should be designed as if community matters. Below we set forth in detail the principles for feed-in tariff design that have proved effective elsewhere. We urge you to include them in your ten-year energy plan. A good FIT for Oregon should: 1) attract private and local capital; 2) achieve broad participation; 3) provide fair value to ratepayers; 4) distribute economic benefits fairly and broadly; 5) support local production, community ownership and local content; 6) minimize negative environmental impacts from increased electricity demand and maximize onsite production while minimizing energy use; 7) contain clearly stated program objectives that strike a fair balance between inclusivity, sustainable economic development, environmental impacts and cost-effectiveness; and 8) be administered by an agency capable of achieving all these program objectives. Download the complete letter here...
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