Chasing the energy hat.

Byline: The Register-Guard

An old Irish saying defines the act of commitment as tossing your hat over a wall and then figuring out how to retrieve it.

The Oregon Legislature has thrown its energy hat over the wall, approving legislation that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming and make this state a leader in clean energy technologies ranging from wind power to solar energy.

By a surprisingly lopsided 41-19 vote, the House approved a bill that requires Oregon's biggest utilities, including the Eugene Water & Electric Board, to generate 25 percent of their power by 2025 from renewable energy sources. The Senate passed a similar version of the bill last month, and is expected to quickly endorse the House changes and send the measure to Gov. Ted Kulongoski to be signed into law.

Oregonians should be proud of this historic legislation, which should help limit carbon emissions while at the same time promoting alternative energy and boosting the state's economy. The proposal's scope and complexity, along with the initial wariness of powerful utility and business interests, made its passage anything but a foregone conclusion.

Despite four years of work and compromise, and last month's passage by the Senate, the bill's prospects appeared uncertain just a few weeks ago. Critics warned with little justification that the proposal would burden ratepayers with major cost increases as renewable energy sources are brought online to replace traditional ones, such as generation plants powered by coal and natural gas.

Ultimately, lawmakers were convinced that the bill contains adequate safeguards to protect consumers. Those protections include a 4 percent cap on cost increases that utilities can incur as they adapt to the new renewable energy standards. Smaller utilities, including rural electric co-ops, are protected by provisions that make it easier for them to cope with the measure's requirements.

Regrettably, the House dropped the Senate bill's requirement that medium-sized utilities, those that account for between 1.5 percent and 3 percent of the state's overall power load, meet the ``25 by '25'' requirement. Instead, they'll be required only to generate 10 percent of their power from renewable resources.

Unlike the state's smallest utilities, which account for less than 1.5 percent of the state's total power load, the 25 percent mandate would not have imposed unworkable hardships on medium-sized utilities such as the Springfield Utility Board. Some already have made strides toward increasing the percentage of electricity they get from renewable sources.

Even with that last-minute compromise, Oregon will still have one of the most demanding renewable energy standards in the nation. And if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows, as it should with no further delay, plans by California, Oregon and 10 other states to reduce emissions from motor vehicles by nearly a third over the next decade, Oregon will take its place at the forefront of states responding to the challenge of global warming.

Governor Kulongoski deserves primary credit for making the renewable energy standard the centerpiece of his energy policy, one that not only targets global warming, but that should provide a significant boost for the state's economy by making Oregon a leader in clean energy technologies.

All it took was tossing a hat over the wall.