2025 Legislative Session Update
As we head into June, the 2025 legislative session is winding down — but plenty remains to be seen when it comes to energy, climate, and other bills that may affect the Oregon Department of Energy’s work. ODOE’s legislative agenda moved as expected through the process, garnering bipartisan and sometimes even unanimous support along the way. Four of our six bills have been signed into law: HB 2565 (allows contracting with national labs), HB 2567 (extends and makes changes to two heat pump programs), SB 825 (removes redundant reporting requirements), and SB 827 (adds storage only to the Oregon Solar + Storage Rebate Program). The other two bills — HB 2566 (adds resilience only pathway to the Community Renewable Energy Grant Program) and SB 828 (dedicated fund for state matching dollars to the Grid Resilience Program) — are in the Ways and Means Committee awaiting budget decisions. Our agency budget bill, SB 5518, passed out of the Ways and Means Committee on May 23 and will be up for final consideration very soon.
Overall, the big theme of late session has been a major dip in anticipated state revenues as the national economic forecast has downshifted. That means that while the bills above may have passed to make changes to some of ODOE’s existing programs, new funding for those programs — and many other state programs related to energy — is unlikely. It also meant that a potential re-investment of $25 million in the Community Renewable Energy Grant Program was removed from our budget bill. Generally, any new policy and program ideas with a significant price tag are far less likely to pass.
That said, there are many energy and climate bills that do not cost much to implement or may move along anyway because legislators see an urgent need for them to pass. For example, legislation addressing utility rate increases (HB 3179 and HB 3546) are also moving along. While some elements of an electric transmission package did not move, including the formation of an Oregon transmission authority (HB 3628), other elements are still in play, such as requiring utilities to make a plan for maximizing grid enhancing technologies (HB 3336) and making shifts in the state’s energy facility siting policy (HB 3681). On wildfire, SB 926 now includes limitations on utility cost recovery and other actions in cases of utility responsibility for wildfire, direction on a new wildfire safety certification process originally proposed in HB 3666, and a study on additional needs related to wildfire and utilities. A much-discussed transportation package is also expected to be released any day.
The legislative session must adjourn by June 29. Keep an eye out for ODOE’s annual Legislative Summary in July.