Mixed Results on Climate in 2025: Energy Affordability Advances While Climate Action Stalls

The 2025 Oregon Legislative session delivered a tale of two climate stories. While lawmakers made meaningful progress on energy affordability and grid modernization, they failed to advance policies that would actually cut climate pollution—and worse, abandoned funding for programs that help Oregonians survive increasingly dangerous extreme weather.

The Good: Making Energy More Affordable and Reliable

This session saw several wins for energy justice and grid reliability. The POWER Act (HB 3546) finally tackles the problem of massive energy users like cryptocurrency operations and data centers driving up costs for everyone else. Now these large-scale users will pay their fair share for the transmission infrastructure they require, instead of passing those costs onto Oregon households.

The FAIR Act (HB 3179) puts customers first by limiting how often utilities can hike rates and moving rate increases away from winter months when families are already struggling with higher energy bills. Combined with doubling funding for the Oregon Energy Assistance Program to $40 million annually, these measures provide real relief for seniors and low-income Oregonians facing electricity shut-offs.

Oregon also modernized its approach to grid management. New laws require utilities to use cutting-edge Grid Enhancing Technologies, support community-controlled microgrid development, and streamline permitting for renewable energy projects through reforms to the Energy Facility Siting Council. These aren’t just technical improvements—they’re building blocks for a more resilient, clean energy future.

The session’s most forward-thinking victories may be climate education curriculum (HB 3365), which will prepare the next generation of Oregonians to tackle the climate crisis with knowledge and engagement, and the managing climate risk investment framework (HB 2081A), which directs the Oregon Investment Council and the State Treasurer to take certain actions to manage the risks of climate change to the Public Employees Retirement Fund.

The Bad: Climate Action Takes a Back Seat

But for every step forward on energy affordability, the Legislature took a step backward on actually addressing the climate crisis. Lawmakers failed to pass the “Junk Out of Rates” bill (SB 88), which would have stopped utilities from charging customers for their expensive lawyers, lobbyists, and marketing campaigns. The “One Stop Shop 2.0” bill (HB 3081) also died, leaving Oregonians to navigate the maze of energy rebate programs without adequate support.

Most troubling was the complete abandonment of funding for existing climate resilience programs. With extreme heat, wildfire smoke, and other climate impacts hitting Oregon harder each year, the Legislature chose to let critical programs stall or shut down entirely:

• Rental Home Heat Pump Program ($30M needed): Left unfunded
• Community Heat Pump Deployment Program ($15M needed): Left unfunded
• Community Resilience Hubs ($10M needed): Left unfunded
• Natural and Working Lands ($5M needed): Left unfunded

These aren’t nice-to-have programs—they’re necessary, life-saving infrastructure that helps communities survive deadly heat waves and provides pathways off fossil fuels for renters and low-income families.

Looking Ahead: The Work Continues

Despite these setbacks, OEC and our coalition partners maintained steady pressure throughout the session. From bringing 95 advocates to Salem for Building Resilience Lobby Day to defending the Climate Protection Program against attacks, we showed up for the climate policies Oregon needs.

The mixed results of this session underscore a fundamental tension in Oregon politics: lawmakers are willing to make energy more affordable and reliable, but they’re still not ready to make the bold moves necessary to cut climate pollution at the scale and speed the crisis demands.

As we head into the interim, OEC will continue building power for transformative climate action. The grid modernization and energy affordability wins from this session create important foundations—but they’re not enough on their own. Oregon families facing dangerous heat waves, wildfire smoke, and rising energy costs deserve lawmakers who will fight for both immediate relief and long-term climate solutions.

The climate crisis won’t wait for political convenience. Neither will we.

OEC has been Oregon’s political voice for the environment since 1968. Learn more about our work at oeconline.org/policy.

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