Terry Richard

(Windmills in the wheatfields, Gilliam County, northwest of Condon.)

By TED SICKINGER

The Oregonian/OregonLive

Oregonians like to tout the state’s clean energy leadership, from its aggressive renewable energy standard to its policies banning coal-fired power.

Yet a study issued Tuesday by Food & Water Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, gave Oregon a D-plus for renewable energy.

The report, titled “Cleanwashing, How States Count Polluting Energy Sources as Renewable,” compared and graded renewable energy standards in 29 states and the District of Columbia. The standards set renewable electricity goals and determine which energy sources qualify as renewable, such as wind, solar and geothermal.

Oregon has one of the most aggressive standards in the country, mandating that utilities supply 50 percent of customer demand with renewable energy by 2040. Only Hawaii (100 percent by 2045) and Vermont (75 percent by 2032) have stricter standards, while California, New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., all have the same target as Oregon but with earlier compliance dates.

On the strength of the standard and its timeframe, Food & Water Watch gave Oregon a C. That’s relatively respectable in this study, but its authors suggest that because almost all states are meeting their renewable energy goals, the targets aren’t sufficiently ambitious.

Don't Edit

Olivia Bucks

(In this file photo, a vertical well collects methane gas from decomposing trash to be burned in a flare station, background, at the Columbia Ridge Recycling and Landfill located south of Arlington. State policies classify such landfill gas as renewable energy.)

Where Oregon loses ground is by classifying a number of “dirty” energy sources as renewable and allowing the use of a compliance mechanism that the researchers contend is flawed.

Most states, the study’s authors maintain, have an overly broad definition of renewable energy that includes power sources that still rely on combustion and create carbon dioxide emissions and other pollutants. Oregon’s standard is among the most permissive. It includes energy produced from mill residue and wood waste, landfill and sewage gas and manure digesters.

That earns the state an F on that standard.

“Those kinds of things should not be in the portfolio; it’s total greenwashing,” said Patrick Woodall, research director at Food & Water Watch. “The reason gas utilities promote biogas is because it gives you the patina of a more renewable approach. The reality is that these biogas sources they have all the same problems that fracked natural gas have.”

Don't Edit

Jamie Francis

(Fueled by wood waste, the steam power plant at the now shuttered Warm Springs Forest Products was classified as 100% green under the state's renewable energy standard, though some environmentalists say such policies are greenwashing fossil fuels. )

Woodall said the inclusion of those “dirty” energy sources creates a disincentive for utilities to focus on zero emissions sources such as wind and solar. “It’s shell game,” he said.

So, too, he said, is the use of renewable energy certificates as a compliance mechanism, which Oregon also allows.

The certificates allow utilities to buy the credits representing the environmental attributes of a renewable energy projects and use them to meet their own targets under the state’s mandates. Portland General Electric and PacifiCorp have both been active in that market, buying and selling their certificates when it’s cheaper than the alternative, including building a new wind or solar farm.

And therein lies the problem, according the study’s authors.

Some of those credits come from the “dirty” renewables such as biogas, while in other cases it’s hard to tell whether the purchases actually resulted in the generation of more renewable energy or just improved the profitability of an existing project.

“It’s a paper method allowing a utility to give itself the cloak of clean energy while still burning fossil fuels,” Woodall said.

Renewable Northwest, an advocacy group in Portland, said the ratings were based on the design of the state’s renewable standard, and the study doesn’t focus adequately on implementation. Results from Oregon’s two largest utilities, the organization said, show that they are focusing on wind and solar, and have only a tiny amount of biogas in their portfolios.

“We can state that despite the rating applied to Oregon, we are seeing a robust renewables industry with steady and continuing procurement of megawatts from renewables, which has contributed to avoiding carbon emissions,” said the group’s new executive director, Nicole Hughes. “We also see a continued growth of commercial interest from both buyers and sellers of renewable energy interested in locating their businesses here in Oregon.”

- Ted Sickinger

tsickinger@oregonian.com

503-221-8505; @tedsickinger