Think tank: Oregon ban on coal plants to drive up energy costs

A bill recently signed into law in Oregon mandates that the state shut down all coal-powered plants by 2035 and switch to clean-energy generation.

Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an advocacy group, is especially critical of the new bill and said it will unnecessarily drive up energy costs for consumers, as its mandates require a clean-energy sharing structure that de-emphasizes hydropower.

“Oregon, along with Idaho and Washington, is blessed with the most inexpensive electricity in the country provided by the big dams on the Columbia River," Ebell said in a recent interview with the online news publication Daily Caller. “The bill passed by Oregon’s legislature will require utilities to replace much of this inexpensive renewable hydropower with much more expensive renewable power from windmills and solar panels. The result will be much higher electric bills in a state that is burdened with high income taxes.”