Happy Birthday Oregon!

On February 14, Oregonians get an extra dose of love as we celebrate Valentine’s Day and Oregon’s birthday.

The Beaver State is 162 years young, and to celebrate we thought we’d share some pieces of Oregon energy history, pulled from the Energy History Timeline in our 2020 Biennial Energy Report.

In 1700, well before Oregon became a state, a magnitude 8+ earthquake occurred along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, causing a tsunami that flooded coastal communities in Oregon. Knowledge of these events appears in Tribal oral history. 1700 is the mo

In 1859, Oregon became the 33rd state. A year later, Portland Gas Light Co. lit up part of downtown Portland with gas streetlights from coal gas – the company became Northwest Natural Gas Company in 1958.

In 1889, the first long-distance transmission line in North America was energized between the generating station at Willamette Falls in Oregon City and downtown Portland. Three years later, the Willamette Falls Electric Company became Portland Gener

Newly electrified industries in the northwest, including shipbuilding, lumber, machinery, and woolens, helped fuel America’s contribution to the allied victory in World War I. (1914-1918)

In 1935, President Roosevelt established the Rural Electrification Administration by Executive Order. The next year, Congress passed the Rural Electrification Act, providing funding to bring electricity to farms. In a speech two years later at the d

In 1954, two Willamette University graduates, Daryl Chapin and Gerald Pearson, helped invent the first solar cell using silicon.

In 1957, construction of The Dalles Dam was completed. While the project contributes to flood control, navigation, power generation, and irrigation, it also submerged Celilo Falls, an important Native American fishing area with settlements and tradi

In 1975, the Oregon Legislature created the Oregon Department of Energy in response to the Arab oil embargo two years earlier. The embargo led to a quadrupling of oil prices, rationing of gasoline, and eventually efforts by U.S. policymakers to redu

In 1980, Oregon voters passed an initiative 53-47 percent that prohibits the licensing of a new nuclear power plant unless it is approved by the voters and only if there is a permanent repository licensed by the federal government for disposal of hi

In 1997, Oregon became the first state in the country to establish a price on carbon with the Energy Facility Siting Council CO2 standard. It requires power plants to avoid, displace, or sequester a portion of their CO2 emissions; applicants can pay

In 2001, the EFSC-approved Stateline Wind Project in Umatilla County becomes first utility-scale wind energy facility built in Oregon.

In 2007, the Oregon legislature passed SB 838, requiring the state’s largest utilities to provide 25 percent of retail sales from eligible renewable sources by 2025. In 2016, Oregon increased it to 50 percent, and became the first state to legislati

In 2020, Governor Brown issued Executive Order 20-04, Directing State Agencies to Take Actions to Reduce and Regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Later that year on October 15, Oregon’s only coal plant, located in Boardman, ceased operations.

It’s important to note that Oregon and the Pacific Northwest have a rich Tribal history.

Indigenous tribes and bands have been with the lands that we inhabit today in the Willamette Valley and throughout Oregon and the Northwest since time immemorial. It is impossible to understand Oregon or U.S. history, geography, or government without having essential understandings of the rich culture and contributions of Native peoples. We would like to express our respect to the First Peoples of this land, the nine federally recognized tribes of Oregon: Burns Paiute Tribe, Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua & Siuslaw, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, Coquille Indian Tribe, Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, and Klamath Tribes. ODOE’s office is in Salem, Oregon, the land of the Kalapuya, who today are represented by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians, and whose relationship with this land continues to this day.

See our complete History Timeline for more.

Jennifer KalezFebruary 10, 2021Energy in Oregon, History, Biennial Energy Report, Renewable Energy

Happy Birthday Oregon!

On February 14, Oregonians get an extra dose of love as we celebrate Valentine’s Day and Oregon’s birthday.

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