Oregon Votes to Plug its Cars into Renewable Energy

Originally posted by NRDC, written by Max Baumhefner.

Oregon’s legislature has just adopted a bill to get the state off coal and onto renewables, and to use that renewable electricity to power the state’s cars, trucks, and buses. As my colleague, Noah Long, explains in a blog co-authored with Angus Duncan who chairs Oregon’s Global Warming Commission, this is a remarkable milestone.

Focusing here on the provisions of the bill designed to increase access to charging stations for electric vehicles, the bill instructs Oregon’s Public Utilities Commission to order electric utilities to propose programs and investments to “accelerate transportation electrification” by the end of this year.

This bipartisan vote builds upon the consensus in support of similar legislation in California and the recent approval of two widely supported proposals by San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison to deploy charging stations for electric vehicles in a manner that helps soak up solar and wind energy.

Joining the unique coalition of regional and national environmental groups, Oregon’s two largest electric utilities, and the state’s consumer advocate, the transportation electrification provisions of the legislation were also championed by DriveOregon, the state’s electric vehicle industry association.

The bipartisan vote in Oregon also represents the first tangible action in response to a recently adopted resolution of the NW Energy Coalition, an “alliance of about 100 environmental, civic, and human service organizations, progressive utilities, and businesses in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia.”

To read more of this story, please click here.

To read our paper “Building “good load” to reduce carbon emissions: Getting Northwest utilities more involved in widespread transportation electrification” please click here.