One more down! SB 375, which establishes minimum efficiency standards for a number of additional home and commercial appliances, is headed to the Gov.

A hearing was held on Thursday for HB 2876, and we are now awaiting a scheduled work session. HB 2876 requires the Department of Energy to reduce energy consumption in existing public buildings by 20% by 2015 and requires new building projects incorporate energy efficient designs.  A work session could be scheduled any day.

We’re also waiting for a hearing and work session for SB 576 which requires that major facility projects be planned, designed, constructed and renovated to meet sustainable building standards.

The three tax credit bills, HB 2210, HB 2211 and HB 2212 are all wrapped up together in the debate that is going on between the House and the Senate on how much money to allocate to all the tax credits that are available to Oregon taxpayers. The House proposal is shy of the Senate proposal, which would likely mean that of the three sets of tax credits, less money than we hoped would be allocated to Residential Energy Tax Credits.  HB 2210 establishes the renewable fuel standard and will provide incentives for Oregon biofuel production and HB 2211 and HB 2212 are the Business and Residential energy tax credit bills respectively.  Once the negotiations on the total tax credit package have been ironed out, these three bills are expected to move quickly.

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