This legislation (HB 4036A) takes away the Public Utility Commission’s ability to regulate private utilities. The PUC was designed to make sure energy monopolies don’t overcharge the rate-payers (us). They are the only defense we have against utilities that are driven by profit & overcharging the public. There’s nothing wrong about a business making a profit but gouging the public isn’t fair when competition doesn’t exist. By law, the utilities are allowed to make a 10% profit after normal costs are accounted for. The PUD determines what the “normal costs” are and allows an increase or decrease in rates as appropriate. This bill takes the PUC out of the equation & basically dismisses about 6 recent rulings against the private utilities. This is a very bad bill. I urge you to get on the phone to you’re your Senator (Betsy Johnson north county & Arney Roblan south county) and let them know your opinion. An E-mail will also work but the spoken word does carry more conviction. As always, be polite.
The following Facebook post from Rep Bill Post of Keizer. Get it on the website right away.
Malheur County is a long way from Tillamook County, but not that far. Grazing rights, logging rights, mining rights on lands in Oregon owned by the federal government (is this Constitutional?) are in question not just in Malheur but right here in Tillamook County. Government overreach could & does happen here, just like Malheur.
The following article from the Capital Press comes from an agricultural perspective. I look at it from a Constitutional perspective. This begs the question: do we live in a free country; a country founded on individual and state’s rights with a central government that has the permission of the people, and the sovereign states, to administer our Constitution; in other words, a Constitutional Republic? Well, do we; food for thought?
It is time to dispel a few myths about what is going on.
Local officials, including Harney County Judge Steve Grasty, made similar demands. On Jan. 26, they got what they asked for.
Authorities, including the FBI, ambushed and arrested Ammon Bundy and others on their way to a meeting in neighboring Grant County. They shot LaVoy Finicum dead. He was not holding a weapon.
Awful. Grasty and Brown knew what might happen should the FBI decide negotiations had failed. Few have forgotten the stand­offs at Waco and Ruby Ridge and that “swift” federal action often means people die — in many cases, indiscriminately.
It’s ironic, but the behavior of the judge and the governor goes a long way to make the refuge protesters’ case for them. Blind devotion to federal authority is terribly dangerous to lives and to liberty.
The following is information about the minimum wage bill currently before the Oregon State Legislature. It requires your immediate attention. Call, write or E-Mail your State Senators and Representatives. Don’t forget, this session only lasts until the end of the month. Our adversaries use this small amount of time to ram their liberal progressive agenda through. Your activism as citizen lobbyists is the only way to slow down or kill repulsive job killing legislation like this. Don’t forget to be polite.
8:00 am to 5:00pm Front Entrance take the stairs on the left.
Location is the second floor Lobby on the Senate side.