To the editor:
Leadership can be really difficult sometimes. Party line votes don’t often result from thoughtful deliberations.
Our region has a couple leaders who are facing criticism for standing up for their thoughtful deliberations. Senate Bill 1547 is the result of a ballot initiative. The initiative would have required our state to derive 50 percent of its electrical energy from renewable energy by 2040 and eliminate imported coal generation from our states electric portfolio.
Although the initiative polled well, it was not well written and the two largest Oregon utilities were quick to join a group of environmental groups, renewable energy advocates and the Citizen Utility Board, a rate watch dog group, to deliberate and develop legislation that could replace the ballot.
This resulted in SB1547, which still results in our state having 50 percent of our energy come from renewable resources by 2040, but after passing through the House and Senate with several amendments, it is vastly better than the ballot initiative that was expected to easily pass.
As folks in the Mid-Columbia region recognize, wind development has been good to us. Sherman and Gilliam County’s tax base is the envy of most Oregon counties.
Our region weathered the 2008 economic crisis rather well as a result of more than a billion dollars of new investments that spilled out into local communities.
If SB 1547 passes, it will likely result in another build-out of projects.
Perhaps Wasco County will see Summit Ridge covered with turbines and Sherman County might see turbines on Golden Hills and Gilliam County could see Montague become what it started out to be.
These projects would be another boost to our region’s economy and tax base and Rep. John Huffman, Rep. Knute Buehler and Rep. Mark Johnson understood this. They didn’t take the easy road and just vote no on this bill, instead they worked hard to make it work better for all of Oregon, not just big power companies.
Both Rep. Huffman and Rep. Johnson were instrumental in getting amendments that greatly improved the bill.
With their amendments, 8 percent of our electricity would come from independent power producers like irrigation districts which could sell hydro power, or a lumber mill which sells power generated from wood waste or a landfill which sells digester derived power.
The changes allow independent power producers to develop community owned projects that provide greater economic benefits to local economies than large absentee owned projects.
Rep. Huffman, Rep. Johnson and Rep. Buehler saw though the partisan haze to see benefits that could be derived from making key improvements to this bill.
I really appreciate their leadership and determination to make the most of a tough situation and I hope you do, too.
Don Coats, Community Renewable Energy Assoc. Rod Runyon, Wasco County Commission Chair
Tom McCoy, Sherman County Commissioner
Steve Kramer, Wasco County Commissioner
Les Perkins, Hood River County Commissioner
Scott Hege, Wasco County Commissioner,
Gary Thompson, Sherman County Judge
Mike Smith, Sherman County Commissioner
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