OSEIA seeks to surmount land-use challenges

OSEIA is partnering with Renewable Northwest to find solutions to several land use challenges. For projects going through the Energy Facility Siting Council (EFSC) process, it is expensive, time consuming, and requires unnecessary studies for noise, volcanoes and earthquakes. OSEIA supports HB 2329 which would raise the size of project required to go through EFSC and allow projects to choose the county or EFSC route, as they allow in Washington. HB 2329 had its first public hearing on February 28th, with part 2 coming on March 5th.  Renewable Northwest, the Association of Oregon Counties and several developers laid out the case for why the EFSC process needs reform.  Tune in to part 2 of the hearing on March 5th!  Catch the video here.

An additional land-use hurdle Oregon is facing is the adoption of temporary rules that ban solar from high value farmland.  While OSEIA and our members support protecting farmland, the rules are an axe when a scalpel is needed. After testifying in January in front of the Land Conservation and Development Commission the public comment period has been extended to May.  In the meantime, OSEIA is partnering with Renewable NW to move HB 2322 forward, which would make goal exceptions easier to obtain when seeking land-use approval. 

Thank you to Rikki Seguin and the team at RNW for their partnership as we seek to solve our land-use challenges.