Oregonians from across the state have spoken. But they are not being heard.
Nearly 5,000 hardworking Oregon residents—represented by clusters in the map below—have written to Governor Tina Kotek asking her and the state of Oregon to come to the table and collaborate with the state’s consumer-owned utilities over the operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System.
There has been no response.
If there is one issue the people from Portland and those from frontier areas such as Harney County can agree on, it is the importance of affordable, reliable electricity. But as the feature story highlights, the state of Oregon is essentially levying a 6% to 7% increase on electricity bills for an experimental and untested fish mitigation program that has had problems from the start.
The so-called Oregon way—the idea of putting the people of Oregon ahead of party, ideology and personal ambition—is desperately needed here. Otherwise, many of the people who took the time to write their governor will have to choose between buying food and paying their electric bills.
That’s not the Oregon way. And it’s time for these concerned Oregonians to be heard.
Executive Director Ted Case
