Wildfire was all around me. Well, the names of wildfires, anyway: Falls, Darlene 3, and Larch Creek. These innocuous monikers did not capture the visible concern among Oregon electric co-op leaders at the Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s summer meeting in Hood River.
It seems like Oregon co-op leaders talk about little else these days, other than what has become the issue of our time. Concerns about these wildfires forced some of our managers to arrive at the meeting late; others left early for the same reason. All of them were worried.
They worry about their members, their employees, and the co-ops’ infrastructures. They also worry that anytime a fire starts, the electric utility is the first to be blamed despite statistics that clearly demonstrate otherwise.
This was an issue I raised in a general session discussion with Doug Grafe, who serves as Gov. Tina Kotek’s wildfire programs director and wakes up every day thinking about how to keep Oregonians safe.
Knowing he had read all our wildfire mitigation plans, I asked him for an honest assessment of how we were doing. I didn’t ask for a grade, but he gave me 1 anyway.
“An A-plus,” he responded, noting that while utilities are just 1 variable in a complex wildfire equation, he acknowledged we have made a serious commitment to prevent wildfires.
It’s high praise, to be sure, but we all know it’s impossible to be right 100% of the time. Pacific Power—Oregon’s second-largest utility—is facing hundreds of millions of dollars in legal judgments due to wildfire litigation. Every utility in the state is afraid this could happen to them.
“We may as well turn in the keys to the co-op,” 1 Oregon manager said. But who do they turn them in to? Oregon’s electric co-ops only exist because no one wanted our service territories in the first place. It was too rural, too remote, and heavily forested.
Not much has changed in 80 years. Except for the increased threat of wildfire. Oregon’s ultimate objective should be healthy communities, healthy forests, and healthy utilities. At our meeting, we discussed some of the elements to help address this crisis: forest management to reduce fuels, public information to increase wildfire awareness, and our own responsibilities to have robust mitigation plans.
There is no magical solution, and we know wildfire will always be part of Oregon’s landscape. A real question, however, is if Oregon’s electric co-ops will continue to be part of the landscape, too.
Executive Director Ted Case
