Company: POR
Filing Date: 2025-02-14
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000784977-25-000012
Chunk: 20

Company: PORTLAND GENERAL ELECTRIC CO /OR/
Filing Date: 2025-02-14
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 20
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” in Item 2.—“Properties.”

18

Environmental Matters

PGE’s operations are subject to a wide range of environmental protection laws and regulations, which pertain to air and water quality, endangered species and wildlife protection, and hazardous materials. Various state and federal agencies also regulate environmental matters that relate to the siting, construction, and operation of generation, transmission, and substation facilities and the handling, accumulation, clean-up, and disposal of toxic and hazardous substances. In addition, certain of the Company’s hydroelectric projects and transmission facilities are located on property under the jurisdiction of federal and state agencies, and/or tribal entities that have authority in environmental protection matters. The following discussion provides further information on certain environmental regulations that affect the Company’s operations and facilities.

Air Quality

Clean Air Act—PGE’s operations, primarily its thermal generating plants, are subject to regulation under the federal Clean Air Act (CAA), which addresses particulate matter, hazardous air pollutants, and GHG emissions, in terms of both quantity and rate, among other things. Oregon and Montana, the states in which PGE’s thermal facilities are located, also implement and administer certain portions of the CAA and have set standards that are at least as stringent as federal standards. PGE manages its air emissions at its thermal generating plants by the use of low sulfur fuel, emissions and combustion controls and monitoring, and sulfur dioxide allowances awarded pursuant to the CAA.

Climate Change—In 2019, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, which established guidelines for states to develop plans to address GHG emissions from individual, existing coal-fired plants, such as Colstrip in the case of PGE, to repeal and replace the Clean Power Plan (CPP), which was originally released in 2015. However, in January 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated the ACE rule and remanded it, in full, back to the EPA. Notwithstanding objections that the EPA intended to issue a new rule that took recent changes in the electricity sector into account, in October 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal of the D.C. Circuit decision. The Supreme Court, in a 2022 decision, determined that the broad approach in the CPP regulating emissions exceeded the powers granted to the EPA by Congress. The Court did not expressly determine whether the EPA can regulate power sector GHG emissions through its other regulatory authority. In May