Good news on OREP!

Portland's Alliance for Democracy is excited that, in part because of our efforts and the efforts of the AfD sponsored program, Oregonians for Renewable Energy Policies (OREP), Oregon is now the first state to have a statewide Feed-In Tariff program.

Alliance for Democracy's sponsored advocacy group, Oregonians for Renewable Energy Policy, has been involved in this effort to "democratize the grid" for the past year and a half, first working with the Oregon legislature and then with the Public Utility Commission (PUC). 

In the media, The Oregonian noted the involvement of OREP in the process and included our Judy Barnes with a quote in the front page article announcing the program beginning. An AfD supporter and a key activist working with Judy, Mark Pengilly, was quoted in the next day's business page article, which noted that by day two all of the program, all of the openings for phase 1 had been filled.

Our efforts have been to develop a program which would allow average people to develop renewable energy on our rooftops and in our neighborhoods where the energy will be used instead of on large remote sites requiring the building of additional expensive grid capacity. Up to this point, those big projects have benefited large multinational corporations while leaving the average Joe outside looking in.  Now we can get be involved in our own clean energy future. 

While we are happy that the program is up and running, much more needs to be done to make it truly a real feed-in tariff program.  Judy and Mark and Teddy and the rest of us here at Alliance for Democracy, Portland are going to continue working on this until the state of Oregon gets it completely right. 

Please visit the Oregonians for Renewable Energy Policy website for more details on this project. And watch the video below, with Jim Lockhart interviewing Judy Barnes on the topic of feed-in tariffs.  This interview was conducted before the Oregon PUC rules were released and before the release of the program to the public. If you'd like more information, please email Judy at jbarnes@hevanet.com.