Oregon Power Plant Cap or Offsets

OR:

HB 3283 (1997) created standards for baseload gas power plants, non-baseload power plants, and nongenerating energy facilities that emit carbon dioxide. These entities must reduce their net carbon dioxide emissions 17 percent below the most efficient baseload gas plant in the United States. HB 3283 allows covered utilities to offset their emissions by implementing carbon dioxide offset projects either directly or through a third party. Alternatively, they may provide funds (corresponding to their carbon dioxide emissions) to The Climate Trust[hyperlink], a non-profit organization established to implement projects that reduce or sequester carbon dioxide emissions.

SB 101, signed in July 2009, applied a different performance standard to all baseload power plants. Generators of baseload power must have emissions equal to or less than 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour, and utilities may only make long-term purchase agreements for baseload power with generators that meet this standard. This bill addresses all baseload power, including coal plants, whereas HB 3283 applied only to baseload gas plants and other non-baseload facilities. It is also less flexible in terms of compliance: while generators were able to purchase offsets for compliance under HB 3283, SB 101 does not have any provisions for compliance through offsets.

HB 3283 [1]
SB 101 [2]