Cleaner Electricity Grid
Oregon’s transition to an electrified transportation system will coincide with a growing need for electricity to charge our electric vehicles. Generating electricity can produce greenhouse gas emissions, so using renewable ways of generating electricity, will help ensure greenhouse gas emissions remain low.
Although the emissions associated with EVs will vary depending on how the electricity used to charge them is generated, electric vehicles are two to three times more energy efficient than gasoline and diesel vehicles. As a result, they produce lower greenhouse gas emissions regardless of how the electricity was generated, especially when charged with electricity generated from renewable sources.
Currently, Oregon has one of the cleanest electricity grids in the country, meaning that the emissions associated from electricity use are relatively low.
Cleaner electricity grid: emissions reduction vision
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electricity used by transportation vehicles to at least 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.
How Oregon is doing
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality requires major sources in key sectors of Oregon’s economy to report on their greenhouse gas emissions. Based on this data, emissions from electricity use for all purposes (including transportation) is the second largest share of statewide emissions in Oregon, while direct transportation emissions are the largest source.
Cleaner resource mix
Oregon’s three largest electricity sources are hydropower, coal and natural gas. The state’s emissions from electricity are some of the lowest in the U.S., and many of Oregon’s smaller electric utilities are more than 95% emission-free. That means when vehicles are charged on those grids, there are almost no associated greenhouse gas emissions.
Favorable laws and incentives
In 2021, the Oregon Legislature passed a law establishing clean energy targets for Oregon’s two largest electric utilities. These utilities must achieve 100% clean electricity by 2040. The law also requires strong labor standards and outlines an advisory panel for the clean energy transition that must include members from underrepresented communities.
In the early 2020s, federal clean energy tax credits provided funding to help the electricity sector build new renewable power generation, but those credits ended in 2025. Without this federal funding, new electricity generation will be slower to come online and more expensive, resulting in higher electricity bills for people in Oregon.
Several state and local programs provide clean energy incentives:
Community Renewable Energy Grant program from the Oregon Department of Energy.
Incentives for energy-efficient home upgrades from the Energy Trust of Oregon.
Oregon Solar + Storage Rebate program from the Oregon Department of Energy.
How Oregon can improve
Continue work under new state law
Oregon’s 2021 clean energy law provides a roadmap for net-zero carbon electricity use by 2040. To realize the state’s emission reduction goals, Oregon needs to follow the new law’s solid framework to reduce electricity demand and emissions.
Plan for growing demand
While utilities have been planning for the shift to electric vehicles for years (see the Oregon 2025 Biennial Zero-Emission Vehicle report), new electricity demands are emerging.
Oregon is one of the fastest-growing data center markets in the country, and the state’s data centers share of electricity consumption is nearly twice the national average.
Accommodating these growing energy needs will be challenging. Oregon’s energy utilities will need to maintain service reliability, follow the 2021 state requirements on reducing electricity carbon intensity, and adapt to reduced federal funding.
Demand can sometimes exceed the electricity generated in Oregon. When that happens, utilities have to buy energy generated in other states, and that energy can sometimes come from sources that produce significantly more greenhouse gas emissions.
Oregon regulators are currently evaluating major rate hikes for large data centers under the state's 2025 Protecting Oregonians With Energy Responsibility Act. The law requires data centers to pay the full cost of their new energy needs, and is the first law of its kind in the United States.
Invest in renewable resources
Low-emission renewable energy sources like solar and onshore wind are now among the lowest-cost sources of new electricity generation. They’re also less expensive to build than new natural gas or coal power plants.
Oregon and other states in the Pacific Northwest need to upgrade their grids to optimize a mix of both renewable and non-renewable resources.
Other potential state actions
Work to restore and enhance federal or state clean energy incentive programs that helped fund new cost-effective clean energy sources.
Encourage and enable flexible electricity loads that can shift demand to times when renewable electricity is more available, including managed EV charging. Flexible loads can support the grid integration of renewable resources, improve utilization of existing grid infrastructure, and defer or reduce the need for new grid investments.
Reduce barriers to deploying more clean energy in Oregon, as outlined in a recent report from the Oregon Department of Energy.
Protect funding for Oregon programs that help entities with the cost of bringing new renewable energy sources online.