GEI News and Events

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 … 

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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.

Check out GEI’s December 2024 newsletter to see highlights of our work.

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.

GEI and Breach Collective publish a helpful guide for local governments in Oregon identifying policy options that disincentivize fossil fuel use in buildings and provide funding for broader decarbonization efforts.

GEI offers a helpful factsheet on the status of regulatory requirements for blending hydrogen into methane in Oregon’s pipelines.

GEI has been in the news this March.

GEI and Sierra Club join together to file two separate amicus briefs arguing that processes overseen by the Public Utility Commission end in final orders that are subject to appeal.

Read about GEI’s work on HB 2021, wildfire liability, and post-California Restaurant Ass’n v. Berkeley pathways.

Read a helpful explanation of the Public Utility Commission’s order concluding Oregon’s electricity decarbonization law does not require the retirement of renewable energy certificates.

Watch the recording here.

Director and Staff Attorney Carra Sahler offered her thoughts about the effect on building decarb efforts after the Ninth Circuit’s decision invalidating Berkeley’s natural gas ban in buildings. Read the interview here.

Lewis & Clark’s Green Energy Institute has been awarded the Bob Olsen Memorial Conservation Eagle Award by the NW Energy Coalition.

Read GEI’s Newsletter summarizing some of its work this year.