Oregon Court Validates City of Hermiston’s Formation of a Natural Gas Utility

Tue 30 Jun, 2015 / by Cable Huston / Verdicts & Cases

Up until now, the members of NWPPA have been focused on electric power. That could change in the future, however, if existing consumer-owned electricity utilities decide to branch out into natural gas service. A court in Eastern Oregon has paved the way for this diversification by ruling that cities in Oregon have authority to build, own, operate, and maintain a natural gas distribution utility. Cities in Oregon also have the power to “exclude or eject” an incumbent gas utility from part or all of the city’s public rights of way — thus overcoming an existing allocation of exclusive service rights.

The court’s ruling started with an industrial customer in the City of Hermiston. According to a story filed on May 12 by the Easton Oregonian newspaper, an existing industrial customer…..Read More