Resilient and Efficient Buildings

As outdoor temperatures and energy costs continue to rise, the Resilient and Efficient Buildings legislation will help lower energy bills and keep people safer in their homes and workplaces, especially those on the frontlines of wildfire smoke and extreme heat. The package contains multiple strategies to address residential and commercial building efficiency and to help consumers navigate state and federal energy efficiency funding, and it requires the Oregon Department of Energy to establish an ambitious, statewide heat pump program and to train contractors to install heat pumps and other energy efficient technologies. It codifies energy efficiency standards for new buildings within the State Building Code to provide certainty to builders and architects. It also establishes energy performance standards for certain large commercial buildings and provides incentives to building owners for cost-effective upgrades. 

Community Resilience Hubs and Networks

With the increasing prevalence of disasters and emergencies, we need to ensure that communities are prepared to respond and to manage what are often very long-term recovery periods. The Climate Resilience Package allocates $10 million to create a grant program with the Oregon Department of Human Services that helps communities to develop and maintain physical locations, trusted relationships and social structures needed to cope when disaster strikes. These resilience hubs and networks will help us to retain and nurture the knowledge and experience born out of crisis so that we don’t have to reinvent strategies during the next emergency.

Natural Climate Solutions

Oregon’s natural and working lands—our farms, forests, urban parks, and wetlands—are not only a rich resource to be protected, but a resource to utilize in our fight against the climate crisis. The new Natural Climate Solutions program includes incentives, financial assistance, and technical support for landowners, Indian tribes, land managers, and environmental justice communities who are working on projects that protect and utilize Oregon’s natural and working lands, sequester and store carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the package creates a net biological carbon sequestration and storage baseline number and inventory for natural and working lands.

The Trees Act

Our tree canopy provides essential heat relief, sequesters carbon, and protects watersheds and habitat. But drought, rising temperatures and opportunistic fungi threaten the health of the canopy and the protection it provides to us. The Community Green Infrastructure Act, AKA Trees Act, provides funding to develop community green infrastructure projects and to support the native seed banks and plant nurseries that make green projects possible. The bill requires the Oregon Department of Forestry to provide technical and financial assistance to public bodies, tribal governments, watershed councils and community-based organizations to respond to canopy damage due to pests, diseases or other conditions.

Wood Biomass and Low Carbon Fuels

Burning the detritus produced by essential forest thinning projects—giant slash piles and dead tree—is becoming more difficult in a day and age when rising temperatures and drought mean that burn days are increasingly rare. In search of another answer, the Climate Resilience Package allocates $3 million to Oregon State University to study whether woody biomass can be used to produce low carbon fuels. If the study confirms commercial viability, we could find another source of support for vital forest projects as well as a pathway for clean fuel development.

Oregon Solar and Storage Rebate Program

In its four-year history, Oregon's Solar and Storage Rebate program has supported projects in 34 counties, turning a state investment of $16 million into nearly $180 million in clean energy investments. During the 2023 session we extended the sunset for the program to January 2, 2029, and invested another $10 million to sustain rebates. This program is also expected to attract significant federal funding to leverage the state investment.

Incentives for Large Electric Vehicles

Large and medium vehicles, like trucks, delivery vans, and buses, and are a major source of emissions, but the transition to more renewable fuels for these vehicles is costly. The energy package allocates $3 million to create a program of incentives for the purchase of electric medium and heavy-duty trucks. This program is expected to attract up to $12 million in federal funding to incentivize purchase of electric vehicles and boost growth in our electric truck manufacturing sector.

State Energy Strategy

Oregon has set an ambitious path to 100% clean energy by 2040. Now we need to understand how to best utilize the variety of renewable energy resources available to us to reach our goals and maximize benefits to all Oregonians. The Climate Resilience Package directs the Oregon Department of Energy to draft a comprehensive state energy strategy that will serve as a blueprint for the state’s clean energy future. 

Community Resilience Planning

Climate disasters and Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) increasingly threaten our electric grid and power supply. These disruptions have significant economic and societal consequences that leave communities vulnerable. We need to understand how and where to develop microgrids or local renewable energy projects that will sustain communities when the power grid goes down. The Climate Resilience Package allocates $2 million to provide all Oregon counties with up to $50,000 to develop local energy resilience plans and strategies.

Community Renewable Energy Grant Program

Established in 2021, the Community Renewable Energy Grant Program provides grants to local governments and small utilities for planning and developing community renewable energy and resilience projects. Grants issued thus far have brought more than $5.4 million to Jackson County for planning and constructing solar projects at Southern Oregon University, Rogue Community College, Phoenix-Talent School District, Medford School District, Central Point School District, City of Talent and City of Ashland. The 2023-25 budget allocates $20 million to maintain and expand this very successful grant program. Funding for this program was ultimately passed via inclusion in the state "budget bill," SB 5506.