The Oregon House of Representatives unanimously passed a
bill Tuesday that would make it cheaper for small utilities to comply with
state renewable energy mandates and potentially allow large utilities to sell
renewable power to industrial customers under a special green tariff.
Call it the data center bill.
House
Bill 4126 is the result of months
of haggling among utilities and interest groups on how to accommodate
the spike in electricity demand from new data centers without saddling small utilities
with major costs for renewable power purchases or setting up a system that
disadvantages larger utilities.
