Note: This story has been updated to reflect clarifying comments the company made after the story appeared about renewable energy investments.

Students, ratepayers, "raging grannies," developers, politicians, and environmental activists packed a public meeting hall Monday to give state regulators and executives from Portland General Electric an earful about staying away from natural gas.

There was no misinterpreting their strident message for the Oregon's three public utility commissioners, punctuated by frequent bursts of applause and even some singing: Don't allow PGE to build new "fracked gas" power plants to replace the coal-fired plant it plans to close in 2020. Move toward sustainable, renewable energy. Now.

"I'm here to ask you to act responsibly," said Sophia Smith, a Cleveland High School student who kicked off two and a half hours of public comments at the Portland Building Monday night. Her fellow students stacked boxes of written comments in front of the commissioners. "If they build new gas plants, they'll be running them when I'm 56, and we all know we need to get on 100 percent renewables before that.

"It's very scary realizing that your future isn't as important as some company's profits."

It was a refrain repeated again and again as commenters raised the specter of methane leaks from gas drilled using the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing, unhealthy pollution from gas-plant operations, uncontrolled global warming -- even "total ecosystem collapse."

"This decision is personal. Our children are at stake," said one 80-year-old Portland ratepayer.

Another customer asked commissioners not to replace one fossil fuel with another, and reminded them of previous regulators' approval of PGE's controversial Trojan Nuclear Plant in the late 1960s; its dirty Boardman coal plant in the '70s; and the utility's disastrous merger with Enron in 1997, which was approved over staff's objections.

"We're sick and tired of paying for these bad decisions," he said to loud cheers.

The sentiments expressed at Monday's meeting might be dismissed as a lot of hot air from a self-selected group of protesters, most of whom were dressed in red. But the Oregon Public Utility Commission has already received a record 7,000 public comments on Portland General Electric's newest integrated resource plan. And as it happens, the commissions own staff thinks it's a lousy plan, too.

PUC staff members issued their own comments Friday. They eviscerated the plan, suggesting that while new technologies, customer expectations, regulatory mandates and climate change are driving a profound transformation of the industry, PGE's action plan is business as usual.

They contend that PGE's plan to acquire new long-life thermal resources -- potentially building new natural gas fired plants in Boardman – poses significant risks to customers. They said PGE's forecast demand growth was too high, and urged the utility to buy what's needed in the short term rather than invest in new plants with a 40-year life.

"Staff recognizes that PGE's need for some capacity is real, though the amount remains uncertain," the staff report said, adding that PGE hadn't fully explored alternatives "outside of generation that generally fits the profile of new thermal plants."

In fact, PGE withdrew permitting requests last Friday for two gas plants in Boardman, saying it was in negotiations to acquire existing resources instead. The company said the withdrawal did not result from staff's comments, but that it had heard the criticism from a broad spectrum of stakeholders and was exploring other options.

PGE chief executive Jim Piro, who was in the audience Monday, said another gas plant at Boardman would have been a very efficient resource that displaced dirtier plants around the west. But he acknowledged that "so far, the negotiations are indicating that we can buy capacity cheaper than we can build it. And that's a good thing."

For some time, PGE has been playing up the possibility of big new infrastructure for Wall Street analysts, as such investments drive its stock price. At least one analyst has downgraded the company's stock recently as the prospect of those investments shrink.

The company is still hoping to make

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near-term investments in new renewables – possibly a 500 megawatt wind farm -- so it can take advantage of federal tax credits that cover 30 percent of project costs before the program sunsets.

"This is good to sit and listen to our customers," Piro said Monday. "Unfortunately, the conversation here is about avoiding natural gas, not adding renewable energy."

Some advocates did urge the commission to give its blessing to PGE's renewable plan, suggesting it would help the utility integrate renewables going forward and that the economic benefits would work to ratepayers' advantage.

The PUC staff, however, didn't like that part of PGE's plan, either. They recommended that commissioners decline to bless it, saying the projected savings from the tax credits were minimal, that PGE had failed to analyze potentially cheaper alternatives, and that the utility doesn't need add renewables before 2029 to satisfy state mandates.

By that time, technology and other market changes could substantially increase the efficiency and reduce the costs of those investments.

"PGE's request for early acquisition of a renewable resource based on a need so far in the future is actually unprecedented," the staff said.

Piro disagreed, and said PGE may move forward with or without the commissioners blessing.

Update: PGE spokesman Steve Corson later said the company will not move forward with the renewables investment absent an okay from commissioners, which provides reassurance that they will approve the associated rate increases when the wind farm is up and running.

Piro said the utility would have a shortage of energy when the Boardman coal plant shuts and that acquiring the renewables "sooner is better" for customers.

The depth of staff's dissatisfaction with PGE's plan was also apparent in its rejection of the utility's demand response plans, which involves working with customers to automatically cut their electricity consumption during periods of peak demand. That's normally a slam dunk, as cutting peak electricity demand can eliminate the need for entire power plants. But staff said the utility was being too conservative, and was stuck in a cycle of running pilot projects that rarely if ever develop into full-blown programs. They recommended a variety of ways the utility could accelerate those efforts.

Most participants on Monday, however, stayed focused on heading off new investments in plants that burn gas, whether in Boardman or elsewhere.

"We're going to continue to watch this very closely and push the commission and PGE not to opt for any additional fracked gas," said Dan Serres, conservation director with the advocacy group Columbia Riverkeeper. "That's the next phase of this tug of war. We watch really closely to see where this pops up next."

- Ted Sickinger

503-221-8505; @tedsickinger