Did you know there\u2019s a group of people who decide how much we pay for utility bills in Oregon? It\u2019s not the utility company who decides your rates. It\u2019s the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC), and there\u2019s some form of this in almost every state! The PUC also makes critical decisions about Oregon\u2019s transition to renewable energy, utility safety and reliability, and more. The decisions made here impact our lives, yet most people do not know that the PUC exists.<\/span><\/p>\n Energy is a human right and there\u2019s opportunities to advocate for that in Oregon through the PUC. Sometimes advocating at the PUC can feel out of reach, which is why Rogue Climate will break it down for you in this blog post. The Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) is in charge of setting the costs people pay for utilities and is intended to prioritize safety, affordability, reliability, and quality of energy services for all Oregonians. The PUC doesn\u2019t oversee all of Oregon\u2019s utility companies, only these:<\/span><\/p>\n Even though the PUC doesn\u2019t make the rules for every utility body in Oregon (including Consumer Owned Utilities like the Coos-Curry Electric Coop or the City of Ashland Electric), it sets precedent for the other utilities to follow and impacts the <\/span>majority of Oregonians (74.1%) who get their electricity from investor-owned utilities<\/span><\/a>. So making changes at the PUC can have an impact on utilities across Oregon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The PUC holds other duties too, like working with Oregon\u2019s Emergency Response System to coordinate how people will be alerted about planned power shut offs during days with high fire risk, setting a more affordable utility rate for low-income residents, and creating policy for utilities to improve energy system reliability. In 2019, the PUC was directed to transition Oregon\u2019s utilities off of fossil fuels under Governor Kate Brown\u2019s Executive Order on climate change.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For the last 3 years, Rogue Climate has been advocating for Southern Oregon communities at the PUC on the topics that impact our communities. This includes extending the COVID-19 utility disconnection pause so people aren\u2019t left without heat and power in hard times (UM2114), transitioning Oregon off of methane gas (UM2178), and requiring community notice for planned power shutoffs that are intended to reduce wildfires caused by power lines (AR638). These proceedings at the PUC are how we can move forward <\/span>energy justice<\/span><\/a> in Southern Oregon and the South Coast.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n No one should have to choose between putting food on the table or keeping the power on. <\/span>More than 1 in 4 Coos County residents are \u201cenergy burdened<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/span> Energy burden is defined as households paying more than 6% of their income on electric and gas utilities while having the least access to energy efficiency programs. In Oregon, energy burden disproportionately impacts rural, low-income, and communities of color.<\/span><\/p>\n Having access to affordable, reliable, and clean power is critical for the wellbeing of families, workers, and vulnerable populations. Now more than ever with climate change fueled heatwaves turning deadly, the PUC needs to prioritize strong protections for communities, not the profit of utility companies. It\u2019s called the Public <\/i>Utility Commission because people can get involved! People can submit comments on any open policies and can attend and testify at regularly scheduled public meetings. If you\u2019d like help navigating the PUC, have questions, or would like to share how you are impacted by our current energy systems, contact alessandra@rogueclimate.org<\/a>. To check out the latest and next PUC meetings, visit bit.ly\/pucmeets<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" En la Comisi\u00f3n de Servicios P\u00fablicos de Oreg\u00f3n, el poder de construir sistemas de energ\u00eda limpios, asequibles y confiables est\u00e1 en sus manos (literalmente).<\/p>","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":3179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy-justice"],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rogueclimate.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/30440756_876640475842270_8964218434678161408_n.jpg?fit=960%2C540&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rogueclimate.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rogueclimate.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rogueclimate.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rogueclimate.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rogueclimate.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3175"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/rogueclimate.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3494,"href":"https:\/\/rogueclimate.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3175\/revisions\/3494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rogueclimate.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rogueclimate.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rogueclimate.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rogueclimate.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/span><\/p>\nSo, <\/b>what is the Public Utility Commission (PUC)?
<\/b><\/h4>\n\n
Why does the PUC matter?<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nHow can you get involved?<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n