For our user agree- ment, click here . An open energy market for Oregon, one of the lowest-cost power states in the nation, likely won't lower the average homeowners' electric bills anytime soon. Over a longer time, however, promoting competition in the energy business in Oregon makes sense because open competition for electricity would build larger and more powerful constituencies that would help us fend off power grabs from outside the region. Senate Bill 1149, approved recently in the Senate, is just a first, tiny step in that direction. Its chief sponsor, Sen. Gene Derfler, R-Salem, acknowledges that he bartered his way to victory, selling off benefits and offering exemptions to a variety of interest groups to win their support.
Deregulation is inevitable.
The national market for electricity is moving in that direction. Indeed, about 20 states so far have either done it or are about to do it. The watered-down SB1149, however, would give only business and industrial customers direct access to competing energy suppliers. The bill exempts consumers of the state's 36 public utility districts, co-ops and municipal districts from opening their territories to competition. That's one of this measure's major flaws because it begins the era of energy deregulation on an uneven playing field.