GEI Highlights the Best of 2024

Check out staff attorneys Cole Souder and Alex Houston in the Oregonian, and Carra Sahler on OPB.

Last year’s newsletter reflected on what GEI had accomplished in a “best of” moment of fun before the chaos and drama of the next administration descended on us. We never could have guessed what we were all about to face … 

GEI staff attorney expressed concerns about Pacific Power’s decision to remove the Boardman to Hemingway planned transmission line from its Integrated Resource Plan. In response to a citizens’ request to revoke the certificate allowing condemnation of private property.

GEI, Sierra Club, Mobilizing Climate Action Together, and the Northwest Energy Coalition argued that the that the certificate was premised upon the transmission line’s “broad public benefits, not the needs of a single private entity.” Allowing PacifiCorp to change course would “violate the spirit and legal framework under which the line was approved by this commission,” Alex Houston, an attorney with the Green Energy Institute who represents the groups, told commissioners. It would also “harm Oregon customers and set a dangerous precedent wherein the justifications supporting issuance of a certificate may summarily be disregarded once the utility gets approval,” he said.

GEI offers opinions about legislation that would require utility transparency about spending ratepayer dollars on efforts to undermine climate policy and avoid wildfire litigation liability. GEI also addresses Oregon’s transportation funding shortfall.