PORTLAND GENERAL ELECTRIC WANTS TO RAISE YOUR BILL AGAIN IN 2025.
😠

They just got an 18% rate hike, the largest in 20 years, and they still want more money! Meanwhile, the rest of us are scraping the bottoms of our piggy banks to pay rent and bills. Retired, elderly and disabled people on fixed incomes should not have to bear the cost of PGE's greed. The working class should not have to subsidize the easy, cushy lives of out-of-touch, overpaid executives like Maria Pope. People should not have to wear hats and coats indoors in the winter and suffer through hot, sleepless summers just because PGE doesn't know how to budget (or doesn't want to). These cruel rate increases can and WILL kill vulnerable people who can't afford to run their heat or AC during extreme weather. Cold kills. Heat kills.Many PGE "customers" are not customers by choice. There are some overlapping service areas, but most of us don't have the option to pay someone else for electricity unless we want to pack up and move. The working poor also have a lot fewer options to save energy. Renters, especially, don't get much choice in the efficiency of their heating/cooling systems, and don't just get to choose solar for themselves. EVERYONE needs electricity, and PGE doesn't even have to provide a quality service-- what other business gets a customer base just for existing? PGE says they need the rate increases to modernize more of their infrastructure, but Bob Jenks, director of the Oregon Citizens' Utility Board, says that's just an excuse.We can't let them get away with another rate hike. Let's fight back!

WHAT YOU CAN DO

  • The Oregon Public Utility Commission takes public comments on rate increases. Go here, choose "I oppose a docket proposal," select "UE 435 - PGE REQUEST FOR A GENERAL RATE REVISION", and leave a comment. Tell them how this is affecting you, your family and your friends and neighbors. You can see others' comments here. They seem to update it manually, so it might take a while for yours to show up. (Firefox users, you might have to use Chrome or Edge for this-- I know, sigh.)

  • SIGN THIS PETITION by the Oregon Citizens' Utility Board!

  • SHARE THIS WEBSITE! Link it to your friends, family, group chats, Discords, local Facebook groups, anywhere that you think a few people might take action. Check out the printables gallery farther down the page!

  • OPUC has regularly scheduled public meetings accessible via Zoom. Look at their schedule. See if you can show up to a meeting and make some noise.

  • Sign this petition asking state legislators to take action to prevent more unfair rate hikes.

  • Find your local representatives and call or write to them. Tell them that utility companies like PGE shouldn't be allowed to raise prices too much or too often.

  • Write to Gov. Tina Kotek. The governor is responsible for appointing the chair and commissioners, of which there are currently only two. Tell Tina Kotek that Megan Decker and Letha Tawney aren't doing enough to protect Oregonians from unfair utility prices.

  • Email OPUC's chair and commissioner directly! Megan Decker can be reached at [email protected] and Letha Tawney can be reached at [email protected]!

  • Write to OPUC. Letters are harder to ignore. Their physical mailing address is:

Oregon Public Utility Commission
201 High Street SE, Suite 100
Salem, OR 97301-3398

  • Be LOUD on social media. PGE has a Facebook, an Instagram, and a Twitter. Follow them. Set up alerts to make sure you see when they post. Every time you see them in your feed, leave a comment. Tell them you can't afford a higher bill. Link other people to this website and tell them that Oregonians can't afford their greed!

  • OPUC also has a Facebook and a Twitter. Do the same to them. Spread the word under their posts, and tell them they are FAILING Oregonians if they do not reject PGE's price increase.

  • This is the mailing address PGE uses for paper bills. FLOOD IT with postcards and letters.

Portland General Electric
P.O. Box 4438
Portland, OR 97208

  • See if you qualify for PGE's income-qualified bill discount. If you make less than Oregon's median income ($75,755, as of the 2021 census), there's a very good chance you qualify. Are you disabled? You probably qualify. Are you on food stamps? You probably qualify. Lots of people qualify! Tell your friends and family! It's easy to apply, and PGE does not deserve a single extra cent from you!

  • Watch your bill like a hawk. If you're seeing charges on days the power was out or days you weren't even home using electricity, call customer service and complain. If PGE won't resolve the issue, file a complaint with the Oregon Public Utility Commission.

⚠️ PLEASE be judicious about your language when you contact OPUC and PGE. Don't swear, and don't send them anything that could be interpreted as a threat. Not because they deserve our best, not in the name of kindness or civility, but because they don't deserve any footholds on the moral high ground. Threatening or excessively vulgar messages could be used to discredit their critics. Do not supply the enemy with ammunition!

PRINTABLES

Print these out and put them up in community spaces, distribute them to neighbors, etc.

MORE LINKS

Who made this website? Are they trustworthy? Are they anyone?

I'm, uh, just some nerd. I worked a customer-facing job in an impoverished area of Salem, Oregon for a long time before I had to quit due to disability. I have seen what happens to people who slip through the holes in our safety net (if we can even call it a safety net; it's more like one big hole bordered in thin string). I'm your neighbor, I'm furious, I love you, and I think you deserve to live in a better, kinder world, where your needs are met and you are never afraid of next month. I think you deserve to spend time with the people you care about instead of working yourself to death just to make ends meet. I think you deserve to sleep soundly, live comfortably, and do what you want to do with your life, and none of that should ever be endangered by the bottomless greed of rich weirdos. I am not affiliated with a political party or specific action group. I am affiliated with possums, pigeons, seagulls, other maligned trash-raiding animals, love, and justice.