This bill protects Oregonians from excessive energy costs. The "Ratepayers Protection Act," will fix the state's broken energy policy that has hurt vulnerable Oregonians.
Personal Choice and Responsibility
The Ratepayer Protection Act will help Oregonians responsibly reduce carbon, bring about energy affordability, and it will help put more protections back into PUC shielding ratepayers from being exploited.
Fiscal Responsibility
Prohibits Public Utility Commission from approving rate schedule established by public utility that makes sales of electricity if moneys collected pursuant to imposition of those rates would be used to remediate Superfund site.
Limited Government
The Ratepayers Protection Act contains the following key fixes:
•Public utility shall not establish a rate of return that exceeds 4.5 percent
•Public purpose charge shall not exceed 1.5 percent of utility customer costs
•The gross collection of public purpose charges shall not exceed 2015 total
•No Energy Trust of Oregon employee shall be paid more than the governor and non-salary benefits shall not exceed 25 percent of base salary
•If the Klamath Dam removal not started by Jan. 1, 2018, the dam removal surcharge will be discontinued, funds collected by PacificCorp shall be returned pro-rata to ratepayers with 4 percent interest paid from date monies were received from ratepayers
•Investor-owned utilities (IOU) prohibited from increasing rates to pay any Superfund cleanup expenses
•State executive-level employees, public utilities commissioners and staff are prohibited from being employed by IOU for two years following their employment with the state or public utility.
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