Introduction to the Climate Guidebook
EWEB’s Climate Guidebook is a reference resource that articulates how EWEB is implementing its Board-approved Climate Change Policy (Strategic Direction Policy #15 – SD15) and how EWEB’s work intersects with climate issues. It is structured based on the five areas outlined in SD15, with a chapter for each:
- Climate Policy
- Power Supply & Transmission
- Customer Decarbonization
- Climate Impacts on EWEB – Resiliency & Adaptation
- EWEB’s Internal Operations
The Guidebook seeks to serve the needs of a variety of internal audiences (EWEB staff) and external audiences (customers and community members). It is a “living document” that will be updated periodically. Annually, readers can expect significant updates in April, in celebration of Earth Day.
EWEB staff have developed a public outreach plan to solicit and document public feedback and refine future content within the Guidebook to meet community needs.
The different sections contain the specific language from each of the five areas outlined in SD15, as well as their importance to the Guidebook and how they are addressed in this version as well as what is planned for future versions.
Explore this webpage: Climate Policy | Power Supply & Transmission | Customer Decarbonization | Climate Impacts on EWEB -- Resilency & Adaptation | EWEB’s Internal Operations
Climate Policy
EWEB Climate Change Policy SD15 – Climate Policy Section
The Board authorizes, delegates, and directs the General Manager to participate in local, state, and regional efforts to encourage, develop and enact measures to minimize and/or mitigate GHG emissions that contribute to climate change. Consistent with Board Policy (GP13), prior to legislative sessions the Board develops and guides EWEB’s positions relative to legislation, including those related to climate and environmental policy supporting this directive.
Strategic Importance & Connections with Other Guidebook Sections
The November 2024 presidential election has brought a significant change in climate policy to the federal government. In a series of Executive Orders, the new administration has begun the process to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, has called for an assessment of the effectiveness of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), seeks to increase production of oil and gas in the US, and has paused the disbursement of funds under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) (sometimes known as the Infrastructure and Investment in Jobs Act, or the IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
EWEB is closely tracking the efforts to freeze federal funding, which could have a significant impact on EWEB projects, yet the full extent of the funding freezes or changes in federal priorities is unknown at this time. All told, almost $20 million in previously awarded federal funding to EWEB is at risk. These projects relate to infrastructure improvements at EWEB’s Carmen-Smith Hydroelectric Project on the McKenzie River and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursements for reconstruction after the January 2024 ice storm. EWEB had planned to apply for another $105 million in federal grants in 2025 that is also now uncertain. As of February 2025, EWEB has seven applications in progress across FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure & Communities Grant and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program that resulted from the January 2024 ice storm, as well as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Restoring Fish Passage Through Barrier Removal Grant. Finally, there is at least another $25 million that major regional EWEB partners, such as Lane County and the City of Eugene, were previously awarded for resiliency projects that matter to EWEB that is also at risk.
At the state level, recent policies passed in Oregon, Washington and California impact the types, costs, and quantities of available power supplies within regional power markets, as well as how we must account for power purchases to track progress towards policy goals. Regulatory and voluntary initiatives aimed at improving regional power adequacy and resiliency are also changing how western power markets operate.
Content currently included in v3.0:
- Policy summaries and links for climate initiatives at the federal, regional, state, and local levels
- Global/Federal: The Paris Accord, BIL/IIJA, IRA, SEC Enforcement Task Force on Climate & ESG
- Regional: Western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM); Extended Day Ahead Market (EDAM); Western Regional Adequacy Program (WRAP); Western Climate Initiative (WCI); Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI); Regional Climate Forecasts and Analyses
- California: AB-32 Cap-and-trade; Low Carbon Fuels Standard; SB-100 100 Percent Clean Energy Act; Tailpipe Emissions Standards; California Independent System Operator (CAISO)
- Washington: I-937 Energy Independence Act, Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA), Climate Commitment Act (CCA), Clean Fuels Standard
- Oregon: Executive Order 20-04; Clean Electricity Standard; Clean Fuels Program; Clean Electricity and Coal Transition Plan; Renewable Portfolio Standard; Emissions Performance Standard
- Eugene: Climate Recovery Ordinance; CAP 2.0
- Principles to guide EWEB investment of staff time and financial resources:
- Carbon Policy & GHG Reduction Principles
- Distributed Generation Principles
- Green Hydrogen Principles
- EWEB Rate Design Principles
Content planned for future Guidebook Versions:
- Additional principles to guide EWEB investment of staff time and financial resources
Power Supply & Transmission
EWEB Climate Change Policy SD15 – Power Supply & Transmission Section
The Board is committed to supporting a low-carbon electric power portfolio that maintains, on a planning basis, over 90% of annual energy from carbon-free resources and targets over 95% of annual energy from carbon-free resources by 2030 to the extent possible and practical without distinct adverse impacts to customer-owners.
Using the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) process including final adoption by resolution (GP7), the Board will work with the General Manager to establish the long-term (20-year) principles, priorities, approaches, definitions (including carbon-free, carbon intensity), measurements, and goals for the electric generation portfolio, demand response, conservation and energy efficiency, and customer impact limitations (including but not limited to reliability, cost, and equity) supporting this directive.
Strategic Importance & Connections with Other Guidebook Sections
EWEB is unique as a Oregon public utility that both owns generation resources and relies on the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) for a share of the federal power system. EWEB is also an active participant in the regional energy market.
EWEB’s long-term power supply decisions are made within the context of state and regional climate policy and changing regulations, rising energy demands via customer decarbonization / electrification efforts, and the physical realities of a changing climate on temperatures and hydro conditions. Additionally, EWEB must live our values and maintain a focus on affordability.
The climate benefits of electrification depend on both the cost and the carbon content of electric power. Keeping rates low is climate action. If the shift to low-carbon power supplies causes a material increase in electric rates, customers will feel less incentive to electrify, and the overall cost burden on average customers will increase. Since power purchases represent the largest share of each customer dollar EWEB receives, this is especially important when thinking about how we source our power.
EWEB’s Energy Resource Study (ERS) contains a requirement to meet the SD15 goal of getting to 95% carbon-free resources on a planning basis. Actual annual emissions will be influenced by real customer demand (driven by local weather patterns and customer behavior) and EWEB’s changing need to rely on market purchases to balance customer demand and resources continuously.
Content currently included in v3.0:
- Load Forecast
- Integrated Resource Plan (IRP)
- 2025 Energy Resource Study & BPA contract decision info to date
- 2023 Integrated Resource Plan
- EWEB’s 2020 and 2021 Electrification Studies showing expected load growth through 2040
Content planned for future Guidebook Versions:
- 2025 Demand Side Potential Assessment
- 2025 Energy Resource Study & BPA 2028 Provider of Choice Contract Product Decision
Customer Decarbonization
EWEB Climate Change Policy SD15 – Customer Decarbonization Section
The Board further authorizes, delegates, and directs the General Manager to assist customers with achieving their GHG emission reduction goals through partnerships, technical assistance, resources, and programs that support, but are not limited to, energy efficiency, alternative fuels, electric and water conservation, electrification, and carbon offsets and sequestration.
Long-term conservation, energy efficiency, and demand-response goals are established as part of the IRP process. Additional program objectives, incentives and budgets will be established annually, as applicable, and/or through revisions to the strategic plan.
Strategic Importance & Connections with Other Guidebook Sections
Since 2011, EWEB has worked to offset load growth (community electricity demand) with investments in conservation and energy efficiency.
EWEB’s integrated resource planning and load forecasting processes (Chapter 3) outline the resource needs to meet demand. Changes to EWEB’s future resource portfolio, coupled with increased energy consumption across the region, require a deeper look at how EWEB will move forward with initiatives to manage load growth, incentivize time-based energy use, and achieve community decarbonization goals. As EWEB builds its future resource portfolio, reliability goals will only increase the need for strategically designed conservation efforts that continue to balance the other values of the organization: safety, affordability, environmental stewardship, and community/equity.
EWEB’s 2025 Energy Resource Study and 2025 Demand Side Potential Assessment (Chapter 3) seek to quantify conservation potential and define the relevant price thresholds for “cost-effective” energy efficiency and demand response programs from various points of view (cost-effective for the customer, for the utility, for the community) to deliver the greatest benefits to all stakeholders within our community.
In 2024, due to grant availability and direction from EWEB’s Board of Commissioners, EWEB intentionally increased its focus on residential and limited income energy efficiency projects. Total residential projects (residential non-limited income + residential limited income) increased by 40% between 2023 and 2024 with limited income projects increasing by 55% year-over-year. While EWEB is proud to have delivered robust efficiency project volume to the limited income residential sector, this effort was motivated by a commitment to address affordability and comfort for vulnerable customers. These projects do not yield significant energy savings, and by extension, meaningful carbon reduction. Furthermore, they are less cost-effective for the utility. This is because for limited income projects, EWEB covers all or nearly all the project cost, whereas for the residential non-limited income, commercial, and industrial projects, EWEB incentives leverage private investment to make the projects happen. This focus on residential projects in 2024 resulted in lower than usual total MWh of conservation achieved. While EWEB achieved 151% of its total peak (kW) 2024 efficiency target, it only achieved 66% of its 2024 energy efficiency (MWh) target.
Over the two-year period covering 2023-2024, residential limited income represented 10% of the total projects, received nearly 22% of available financial incentives, but yielded less than 2% of the energy savings. Conversely, over the same two-year period, commercial and industrial represented less than 7% of the total energy efficiency projects, received about 40% of the total available incentives, yet accounted for nearly 78% of the total energy savings (54% for commercial and 24% for industrial).
While this investment in the limited income customer segment is important from a social equity point of view, it is not driving community GHG emissions reductions. EWEB is committed in 2025 to review its limited income support programs to find ways to continue and expand support for making clean energy and water affordable for our most vulnerable customers. Yet project scale is another important component to drive significant energy and emissions savings. Commercial and industrial projects tend to be much larger, so a fewer number of projects can generate significant energy and emissions savings compared to residential projects. From a conservation program perspective related to decarbonization goals, in the future EWEB will be more reliant on higher energy efficiency targets to support reliability and more cost-effective projects that can achieve greater environmental impact.
According to the Oregon Department of Energy and its Oregon Electric Vehicle Dashboard, as of October 2024, there were 5,375 electric vehicles in EWEB’s service territory, nearly a 35% increase from August 2023, resulting in over 14,800 MT reduction in annual greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2024, EWEB invested in $835,000 of Oregon Clean Fuel Program funding into transportation electrification programs including rebates for EV charging infrastructure; incentives for e-bikes; electric mobility community grants for non-profit, academic, and public organizations; and electric vehicle car share programs at low-income housing developments. However, also in 2024 Oregon Clean Fuel Program credits significantly decreased in value. Credit prices had been more stable and consistently over $100 per credit since 2018 but dropped to under $30 in Sept 2024. Average credit prices in the early months of 2025 are in the low to mid-$40s. This will impact the amount of funding EWEB has available to invest in transportation electrification initiatives in coming years.
Content currently included in v3.0:
- Information on existing Green Options customer programs and efficiency / decarbonization incentives:
- Live Green: Energy Conservation Programs for Residential Customers
- Work Green: Energy Conservation for Commercial Customers (General Service)
- Move Green: Programs to Support Electric Mobility
- Lead Green: Advanced Solutions for Climate Innovators
- Appendix D – EWEB’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy SD23
- Appendix E – EWEB’s Carbon Intensity Guidance
- Appendix F – EWEB’s Role in City of Eugene’s CAP2.0
Content planned for future Guidebook Versions:
- Definitions and metrics regarding how EWEB programs reach and support diverse segments of our customer base, informed by the Demand Side Potential Assessment (DSPA).
- Enhanced options of Rate design.
Climate Impacts on EWEB -- Resilency & Adaptation
EWEB Climate Change Policy SD15: Climate Impacts on EWEB – Resiliency & Adaptation Section
Consistent with resiliency initiatives included in EWEB’s approved strategic plan, the Board directs the General Manager to evaluate and enact measures, as necessary and appropriate, to prepare for and minimize the effects of climate change that could impact EWEB’s water and electric supply and infrastructure, damaging EWEB’s resiliency and reliability.
Strategic Importance & Connections with Other Guidebook Sections
EWEB defines resiliency as “the ability to reduce the likelihood, magnitude, and duration of sudden or gradual disruptive events through risk mitigation, emergency preparedness and response, and recovery strategies.”
More than 100 years ago, EWEB was created to enable local control of vital community resources in the face of a public health emergency when a typhoid epidemic struck Eugene in the early 1900s, and the community needed a clean water supply.
Today, the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute (OCCRI) has identified a series of specific threats expected for Lane County based on best practices in climate modeling. Climate-related threats include heat waves, heavy rains, flooding, wildfire, changes in ocean temperatures and chemistry, coastal hazards, drought, expansion of non-native invasive species, reduced air quality, and loss of wetlands. Building on this work, EWEB is planning for identified threats in coordination with local partners through the Lane County Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan (NHMP), as well as through EWEB’s Wildfire Mitigation Plan (WMP). The NHMP process ranks the threats with highest potential impacts to our assets and customers as including winter storms, wildfire, and earthquakes. These threats are the primary focus areas for EWEB’s mitigation investments to our infrastructure and systems. Moderate threats noted include extreme heat, windstorms, flooding, landslides and drought. These documents also provide us with knowledge that could support EWEB customers in their climate adaptation efforts as well.
The NHMP & WMP are driven by regulation and influenced by EWEB’s strategic commitment to infrastructure renewal and hardening against a range of potential disruptions. EWEB also has a robust watershed protection program to reduce the threats to the McKenzie River, which is Eugene’s sole source of drinking water, while simultaneously planning for a second drinking water source on the Willamette River.
Content currently included in v3.0:
- Expected physical changes for Lane County, via Oregon Climate Change Research Institute
- Eugene-Springfield Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan (NHMP)
- EWEB’s Wildfire Mitigation Plan
- EWEB’s Watershed Protection Program
- Second Source of Drinking Water Development on the Willamette River
- Appendix C – EWEB’s Resiliency Policy (SD22)
Content planned for future Guidebook Versions:
- Link to EWEB’s Annex to Lane County’s NHMP once approved by FEMA
- SD22 Resiliency Policy implementation activities
- High-level results from EWEB’s 2025 Business Impact Analysis
- Research results from EWEB’s Forest Carbon Lab investments in partnership with University of Oregon
EWEB’s Internal Operations
EWEB Climate Change Policy SD15: Internal Operations Section
The Board further authorizes, delegates, and directs the General Manager to continue efforts to minimize and/or mitigate GHG emissions from EWEB’s operations that contribute to climate change. As initially established in 2010, EWEB adopted a goal to reduce the Scope 1 and 2 (direct GHG emissions and energy) greenhouse gas emissions associated with its operations and facility management activities.
Accordingly, and as formally established by this directive, EWEB plans to reduce our net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions from operations relative to 2010 levels by:
- 25% by 2020,
- 50% by 2030,
- Achieve carbon neutrality from our operations by 2050.
Strategic Importance & Connections with Other Guidebook Sections
EWEB has been tracking our internal GHG emissions annually since 2009, in accordance with industry standards and the World Resources Institute Greenhouse Gas Protocol and The Climate Registry’s General reporting Protcol. EWEB’s Climate Change Policy (SD15) set specific GHG reduction goals for EWEB’s internal operations – see box.
While there has been variation in annual emissions due to several factors, EWEB has met its 2020 goal of 25% reduction in 2010 baseline emissions consistently since 2014. In 2020, emissions dipped below the 2030 goal of 50% reduction compared to our 2010 baseline, but some of those reductions were temporary as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and work-from home orders. In 2024, EWEB is pleased to report our emissions once again fell below the 2030 50% emissions reduction goal. In 2024, EWEB is reporting a drop of 55% compared to 2010 baseline emissions. This drop is primarily due to a lower electricity emissions factor, as calculated by Oregon DEQ for EWEB in 2023, lower fleet emissions, lower natural gas emissions due to the sale of the headquarters building in June 2023, and no recorded refrigerant or industrial gas recharge in 2024.
Progress towards EWEB’s internal GHG goals is calculated using a market-based approach to electricity emissions and using the EWEB-specific emissions factor as calculated by Oregon DEQ’s GHG reporting program.
EWEB’s voluntary Board-approved goals align with goals set by both the State of Oregon and the City of Eugene, and EWEB seeks to be an active partner in these efforts to both decarbonize our operations and support our community in further decarbonization efforts. By developing a plan for carbon neutrality by 2050 and piloting various technologies in our operations, EWEB can gain the kind of firsthand knowledge that will be helpful as we support our customers in their decarbonization efforts. Additionally, since EWEB’s internal electricity consumption makes the utility one of the largest electricity consumers in our community, we also have an opportunity to apply new rates, programs, policies to our own bills first – giving us valuable insights from a customer perspective.
Finally, EWEB seeks to stay aware of all relevant grant, tax, and incentive programs available from state and federal programs to maximize GHG reduction opportunities and simultaneously improve resilience and climate adaptation and we regularly work with our local partners to advance community approaches to emissions reduction efforts.
Content currently included in v3.0:
- Greenhouse gas emissions inventory results for calendar year 2024
Content planned for future Guidebook Versions:
- Comprehensive Greenhouse Gas Inventory following The Climate Registry’s Electric Power Sector Protocol (EPSP) and showing power delivery carbon intensity, water delivery carbon intensity, and operational emissions from shared services between the two utilities for 2024 and back to 2010.
- Updated language and goals outlined in SD15 that incorporates other sustainability objectives from SD2 EWEB’s Environmental Policy.
