The New Governor Also Pushes for School Energy Audits for Weatherization Projects

The Register-Guard

By David Steves

Jan 12, 2011

SALEM — Gov. John Kitzhaber took several steps Tuesday toward creating jobs, including issuing an order to free up $2 million for energy audits of 500 schools to select top candidates for weatherization work next summer.

Kitzhaber announced his first acts as governor a day after taking the oath of office and a few hours after receiving recommendations on job creation. He said he wants to pursue a range of steps, including pushing for federal rules favoring the burning of woody biomass in the Northwest for energy production, and ensuring a sufficient supply of land that can be rapidly permitted for industrial projects.

Plus, he will direct a state agency to look into the possibility of withdrawing Columbia River water to store for crop irrigation during high-flow periods.

Kitzhaber said it was not by accident that he chose to focus the first public pronouncements of his new governorship on reviving the economy and putting more Oregonians to work.

“I’m very serious and people should take me at my word that getting our economy turned around and getting the private-sector economy back on its feet is essential to the future of our state,” he said.

Oregon’s number of unemployed has been stuck at a very high level for more than two years. There were 209,601 unemployed in the state in November, the latest month for which data are available, up slightly from 196,822 a year earlier. The unemployment rate in November was 10.6 percent. It’s been over 10 percent since early 2009. Numerous experts say any substantial recovery — and the jobs that go with it — will take a considerable time to materialize.

Kitzhaber said on Tuesday that he will pursue rules that give a preference for boilers in school retrofit programs that burn woody biomass. The burning of logging slash, thinning debris and other woody material in energy generation has created some controversy, with proponents saying it is an efficient and clean use of Oregon’s natural resources, and critics saying it can sully the air.

Kitzhaber vowed to engage in regular, frequent communication with leaders from manufacturing and other sectors. He voiced support for the integration and expansion of separate job training and career readiness programs and the revamping of a state investment fund so it’s used primarily for economic development, and for continued funding of an existing state program meant to transform university research into market-ready jobs.

The governor compared his first set of actions to picking “low-hanging fruit,” and said he plans to continue to push for more ambitious job-creating initiatives as he gets further into his term.

He did not provide a total projected number of jobs from all the actions he laid out Tuesday. He said in his inaugural address a day earlier that he supports the Oregon Business Plan goal to create an average of 25,000 jobs a year through 2020.

Kitzhaber’s most concrete proposal, for school energy audits, relates to one of the central economic development initiatives of his 2010 campaign. The $2 million would come from unspent federal stimulus aid being held by the Oregon Department of Energy.

Kitzhaber wants to start upgrading schools next summer with high-efficiency windows, computer-controlled heating systems, motion sensors to minimize the use of electricity to light empty classrooms, and green energy features such as solar panels and boilers fed by locally collected woody debris from logging and thinning. Kitz­haber’s transition advisers have looked into funding it through a combination of existing programs — loans, grants and private financing — which could launch $50 million to $100 million worth of energy upgrades and weatherization upgrades in the next two years. The energy savings ultimately would pay for the upfront costs for materials and labor.

Sen. Frank Morse, R-Albany, sat in on a briefing with the governor on his recommendations and plans to discuss them more. The retired construction company executive said he likes what he’s seen and heard so far from the new governor when it comes to the economy.
“I’m really encouraged that the governor is reaching out and listening, and I have a conviction that that will continue,” Morse said.

Copyright © 2011 — The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, US