Implementing the Oregon Energy Strategy

Executive Order 25-29 directs action to implement the Oregon Energy Strategy. For the Clean Electricity pathway, EO 25-29 directs agencies to undertake six initiatives, including this report, to “get clean energy projects built.” This report will examine barriers to some projects not moving forward despite receiving site certificates and make recommendations to overcome barriers.

Oregon’s current supply of electricity generating facilities will not be sufficient to meet rapidly rising demand for electricity from various sources, including data centers and electrification. More resources are needed. The Oregon Energy Strategy recognizes this imperative: “To reliably serve Oregon’s current and growing electricity needs, the electricity system must expand.”

EO 25-29 section I(2)(a) directs ODOE, in coordination with the Oregon Public Utility Commission and the Department of Land Conservation and Development, to “inventory, assess, and analyze barriers to the permitting, construction and interconnection of clean energy projects and associated infrastructure” and “recommend actions to overcome those barriers while balancing opportunities for public participation with the state’s interest in accelerating deployment of clean energy infrastructure that benefits Oregon ratepayers.”  

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Executive Order 25-29 directs Oregon agencies to streamline siting and permitting processes for clean energy projects, energy storage, and transmission infrastructure. In response, the ODOE’s Energy Facility Siting Division evaluated its statutory authorities, rules, and practices to identify opportunities for greater efficiency while maintaining strong protections for public health, communities, and natural resources.

Oregon’s centralized energy siting system is administered by the Energy Facility Siting Council (EFSC or Council) with staff support from ODOE’s Siting Division. While EFSC is the final decisionmaker on all proposed energy projects and amendments to approved energy projects, ODOE staff conducts the day-to-day work and coordination in order to make recommendations to EFSC about whether a proposal complies with applicable requirements. The system was designed to consolidate multiple state and local reviews into a single, standards-based, quasi-judicial process. This approach ensures consistency, transparency, and robust environmental and public health protections, and reduces duplication across agencies. However, as the scale and urgency of renewable energy and transmission development have grown, pressures on EFSC and the Siting Division have increased.

This report:

• Highlights progress already made by ODOE and EFSC to improve and streamline the siting process, including restructuring EFSC’s rules; improving the organization of application elements; strengthening coordination with Tribes and agencies; enhancing public engagement tools; updating standards, including wildfire prevention requirements; and modernizing the amendment processes.

• Identifies ongoing efforts and recommendations for additional changes that could further improve efficiency and streamline permitting while maintaining meaningful public participation and robust environmental and public health protections. These efforts include ongoing rulemaking, improved internal financial and task-tracking accountability, expanded use of digital and geospatial tools, and early-phase coordination with applicants and Tribes.

• Describes new and updated permit streamlining recommendations developed by ODOE. The recommendations reflect input received from interested parties, Tribes, the public, and EFSC members during review of the draft report. The recommendations identify actions that ODOE, the Siting Division, the Legislature, and other agencies could implement to achieve further efficiencies within the Siting Program.

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ODOE, in partnership with the Institute for Policy Research and Engagement at the University of Oregon, is conducting the Oregon Energy Strategy Workforce Needs Assessment. Advancing the pathways and mission of the Oregon Energy Strategy will require a larger workforce across areas such as renewable energy generation, transmission, energy efficiency, and clean transportation. This assessment aims to understand how well current workforce and training systems are positioned to meet modeled demands and to develop recommendations that support the growth of Oregon’s clean‑energy workforce.

The goals of the project are to:

• Evaluate Oregon’s current clean energy workforce and training infrastructure

• Identify occupation-level projection gaps for the top 15 clean energy occupations identified in the Energy Strategy

• Identify training and education pathway gaps

• Recommend strategies to strengthen pathways to meet projected workforce needs.

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EO 25-29 calls on the Oregon Department of Energy, in coordination with the Oregon Public Utility Commission and the Governor’s Office, to undertake a process to evaluate and propose a framework to strategically accelerate:

1. Identification and designation of transmission corridors, including on public lands (state and federal);

2. Streamlined partial siting and permitting approvals for future projects in those corridors or within existing transmission rights-of-way; and

3. Targeting direct financial support for projects that are determined to benefit the public interest.

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