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Ted Case Testifies Before the Business, Transportation and Economic Development Committee, February 2, 2012

Chair Beyer and Members of the Committee:

For the record, my name is Ted Case and I am Executive Director of the Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association. ORECA represents 18 Oregon electric co-ops, serving over 200,000 members in mostly rural and remote parts of this state, with over 30,000 miles of line.

We also serve millions of more trees than we do people, and that is why I am here today in support of SB 1546. The recent storms demonstrate why this legislation is responsible and necessary. I am going to quote an email from Steve Scott, the Engineering and Operations Manager of West Oregon Electric Cooperative as that utility attempted to restore power.

“During the line patrol of the (Hwy), we discovered our alternative transmission line had multiple spans on the ground. The road is completely blocked with downed trees (some with downed power lines in them) every few hundred yards.”

Clearly, in situations that I just described the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) needs all the necessary tools for public safety. While Oregon’s electric cooperatives have a good working relationship with ODOT, our perception is sometimes they do not feel they have enough flexibility to move forward with important projects. SB 1546 will give ODOT the necessary tools to address problem trees that could pose a threat to safety and cause outages. I commend the hard work of Senator Johnson and others who worked on this proposal and urge its adoption.