The governors of Oregon, Washington and California announced today that they will use a half million federal dollars on ocean health projects. Projects could include wave energy and ocean-floor mapping.

The governors committed to an ocean protection plan in 2006 and, in 2008, released an action plan, the on Ocean Health. Officials representing the governors have now released final plans in eight areas: climate change, runoff, marine debris, cordgrass eradication, renewable ocean energy, ocean awareness and literacy, seafloor mapping and sediment management.

Each area won’t necessarily get a project funded from the federal money, said Jillian Schoene, spokeswoman for Gov. Ted Kulongoski. “The policy folks from the three states who have been working on this since 2006 will come to an agreement on how they’ll use that $500,000.

“The states have also secured their own dollars and gone after federal dollars, but that $500,000 will go to the WCGA to be distributed.”

Oregon has already made strides in ocean-floor mapping. State officials expect to have 44 percent of the area covered under the Territorial Sea Plan mapped by the end of the summer, compared to 5 percent that was mapped at the start of 2009.

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Gov. Ted Kulongoski in 2005 issued a directive for all state agencies to acquire 100 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2025. That’s why the Oregon Department of Administrative Services is looking to install solar energy systems on 17 of its buildings in Salem and two in Portland.

But Kulongoski’s renewable goals could be hampered by Business Energy Tax Credit changes that he signed into law last month.

The DAS plans to partner with a solar company for the solar installations through a in which the company would design, engineer and install all 19 systems. The DAS would then transfer tax credits for the project to the solar company via the BETC pass-through option. But some solar companies are concerned that the BETC changes will make the project difficult to finance.

Kulongoski last month signed into law, which caps BETC money available for renewable energy projects at $300 million for 2010 and limits the amount of pre-certified tax credits for a facility using or producing renewable energy resources to $20 million per year. It also limits eligibility for the BETC to ‘separate and distinct’ projects.

That ‘separate and distinct’ clause has caused Sandra Walden, president of Real Energy Solutions, to be in frequent contact with the Oregon Department of Energy. She is trying to determine if the DAS’ 19 solar installations would qualify for the BETC as separate projects if they would need to be lumped into one. If the latter is the case, then the project’s cost could exceed the $20 million cap. Walden said she would be hesitant to submit a project proposal if she can’t get a clear answer from the DOE.

“It takes time and energy by a team of people to make these RFP responses make sense,” Walden said. “If you put time and energy into something, you want to be sure you can execute the project. I don’t want to win an RFP and not be able to execute it.”

The Oregon Department of Transportation recently encountered a similar BETC speed bump when it looked into pre-certification for BETC for two solar highway projects. Jim Whitty, manager of ODOT‘s Office of Innovative Partnerships and Alternative Funding, discovered that the two projects would be required to be included on one application. However, the two projects together would have exceeded the $20 million cap. Now, ODOT will perform only one solar highway project this year.

The BETC is one of the few financing options for public agencies pursuing energy upgrades for their facilities, according to Brent Gunderson, president of the Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association and president of solar company Gen-Con Inc.

“If a public agency is looking for a Solar Power Purchase Agreement, they need the BETC,” Gunderson said. “But I need clarity. I can’t afford to spend time on a cloudy project when I have others that are going forward. I hope I’m wrong. We need some big solar projects to prove Oregon is in the industry.”

The solar systems for the 4-megawatt DAS project would be installed on roofs, carports and the ground. The DAS pays $3 million per year for electricity for its 44 facilities; 35 percent to 40 percent of that power is consumed at the 19 facilities slated to receive solar upgrades. Presently, only 1 percent of DAS’ power comes from renewable resources.

DAS sustainability coordinator Elin Shepard said her department is aware that the solar installations may be affected by the BETC changes; however, she was optimistic about the project.

“This project will show that Oregon is a strong player in renewable businesses,” Shepard said. “A big part of this project is economic development. I hope people applying for the RFP are aware of the impacts of the changes to BETC and take that into account. But we won’t let it stop any momentum we have to move the project forward.”

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Governors from 19 states, including Oregon’s Gov. Ted Kulongoski, have sent a letter to President Barack Obama pressing him to extend the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit, a federal incentive program funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

In the letter, the governors ask that the MTC be incorporated into a jobs bill or other appropriate legislation. Its inclusion in the stimulus package leveraged  $5.4 billion in private investment from $2.3 billion in federal funds given to support the creation of clean tech manufacturing jobs.

Only one of the 10 leading wind turbine manufacturers and one of the 10 leading solar photovoltaic companies in the world are American, the letter says, while European companies have taken the lead, benefiting from significant manufacturing subsidies and incentives from their governments. It also cited China, Japan and Scandinavia as other areas currently out-competing the U.S. in clean energy production, development and manufacturing.

Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington also signed the document, which was also sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner.

The MTC gives a 30 percent credit for investments in new, expanded or re-equipped advanced energy manufacturing projects. Projects that receive the credit have to be completed within four years.

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Governor Ted Kulongoski today signed , which reduces the amount of Business Energy Tax Credits available for large-scale wind projects and sets sunset dates for credits related to manufacturing and renewable energy projects.

In addition to smaller subsides for wind projects, the legislation caps the credit for manufacturing at $200 million based on pre-certification costs and caps the credit for renewable energy projects to $300 million. It also allows additional BETCs for companies that start a new, distinct manufacturing business that provides new jobs for the state.

The BETC for manufacturing will sunset on Jan. 1, 2014 and the BETC for renewable energy will sunset on July 1, 2012.

The changes to BETC are expected to recover $54 million for the state from 2009 to 2011 and an additional $97 million from 2011 to 2013.

In addition to HB 3680, the Governor also signed several other energy-related legislation into law today:

• establishes that community-based renewable energy projects include marine renewable energy resources, such as a planned wave energy farm in Reedsport.
• allows non-utility owned certified low-impact hydroelectric power facilities to qualify for compliance with the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard.
• deletes the requirement that solar photovoltaic energy systems have the primary purpose of meeting electric company’s customer load service obligation in order to be a qualifying system for purposes of the solar photovoltaic energy system pilot project.
• allows above-market costs associated with compliance with the renewable portfolio standard to be recoverable in electric companies’ rates.
• directs the Oregon Transportation Commission to adopt a statewide transportation strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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Anyone who gets around Portland by car probably knows the frustration of waiting at a poorly-timed red light while traffic piles up. But what local commuters don’t know, transportation experts say, is that it could be worse.

Portland’s various transit agencies have been installing more and more Intelligent Transportation Systems projects around the city in recent years. The technologies, such as coordinated actuated traffic signals that track how many cars are waiting at each side of an intersection and then react accordingly, can reduce congestion as well as greenhouse gas emissions by keeping traffic moving.

But Portland isn’t fully wired yet. As city and state departments of transportation work with limited funding for road projects, Peter Koonce, the city of Portland’s division manager for signals, street lighting and ITS says funding for the systems should be a priority at a state and federal level.

“Funding for ITS is important because it gives us a transportation system that talks back and gives us information about how our roads are used,” Koonce said. “It’s like having the internet for our transportation system. We have a dial-up connection right now, and we need a DSL-type solution.”

Koonce says about 15 percent of all of Portland’s traffic signals have been outfitted with ITS technology, which allows the Portland Bureau of Transportation to monitor traffic behavior and adjust traffic signal timing to ease congestion on major arterials. It also provides information that city planners can use for planning road improvements.

Portland last week received an award from the nonprofit group ITS America for the city’s use of ITS.

“In Portland, you have various transportation departments working together and stretching limited dollars in way I haven’t seen happen in other cities,” said Scott Belcher, president and CEO of ITS America. “Portland is doing this because it makes solid business sense. We’re getting to a place where you can’t build more roads to fix congestion problems.”

But 15 percent is only a small portion of what the city could achieve if it had more funding for ITS systems, Belcher said. According to Pamela O’Brien, senior transportation engineer with transportation engineering firm DKS Associates, installing coordinated actuated traffic signals can cost between $50,000 to $100,000 per intersection. She is currently working on a coordinated actuated traffic signal project along Southeast Powell Boulevard.

“Instead of the traffic signal running on a 100 second cycle, it adapts to how it is approached by traffic,” O’Brien said. “The cost depends on the age of a corridor and how much upgrading we need to do.”

Multiply $100,000 by all of Portland’s intersections, and you’re looking at a significant funding hurdle.

Still, Oregon’s state government is in agreement that ITS represents the future when it comes to managing roads and highways. Gov. Ted Kulongoski, has requested about $6 million in funding from Congressman Earl Blumenauer and Congressman Peter DeFazio for ITS projects in Eugene and along the Interstate 84 corridor in East Multnomah County, according to Rem Nivens, a spokesman for the governor’s office.

“The governor supports having a smarter transportation system,” Nivens said. “These systems are important improving traffic flow on our roads.”

DeFazio has advocated including funding for ITS projects in the 2009 Federal Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill, which would set federal transportation funding goals for the next five years. If funding for ITS systems isn’t included, Belcher says the US will fall further behind other countries in its ability to manage congestion and traffic crashes, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. The bill has yet to be passed.

“Places such as Japan and China have invested federal money in deploying these systems to stay competitive,” Belcher says. “By improving signal timing at just 17 arterials in Portland using ITS, the city was able to retire 157,000 metric tons of CO2. We’re desperately in need of a long term bill that funds these projects as we look at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Still, even without federally dedicated funding, ITS projects are increasing around the state, according to Edward Anderson, senior traffic and ITS engineer with Oregon Department of Transportation. This year, ODOT will install more traffic monitoring cameras in and around Eugene, as well as more unique projects like a chain-up lane along Interstate 84 that will illuminate to tell vehicles to pull over and chain up during inclement weather.

“These systems are well developed in Portland, but other areas in the state aren’t,” said Anderson. “I’d say statewide project are increasing, but they rely on funding by individual regions.”

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In 1987, Oregon adopted “She Flies With Her Own Wings” as the state motto. If the state continues to take the electric road, perhaps that motto could be changed to “She Drives With Her Own Electricity.”

A report submitted to Gov. Ted Kulongoski last week by the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Infrastructure Working Group says electric vehicles represent the greatest opportunity for the state to create jobs, and adopt a new fuel to meet the state’s ambitious emission reduction goals.

But Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen, chairman of the working group, said he is concerned what may happen after changes are made to the Business Energy Tax Credit, Oregon’s most important competitive resource for attracting businesses.

“The piece of the BETC that is important for electric vehicles is the piece where credits are given to manufacturers,” Cogen said. “They need to get that kind of incentive. It’s understandable why changes need to be made, but we can’t make changes to the goose that lays our golden eggs.”

Cogen and authors of the report say the state is ahead of the curve in preparing for a future influx of electric vehicles. Oregon has the highest percentage of hybrid vehicle owners in the country, existing EV charging infrastructure and EV-related businesses such as vehicle manufacturers Arcimoto and Brammo, and makers of embedded electronics such as Intel.

And Jillian Schoene, spokeswoman for Kulongoski, said the state will see the EV market develop even more this summer when eTec and Nissan deploy several hundred all-electric Nissan Leaf vehicles in Portland, Salem and Corvallis.

“Companies can look at Oregon and know customers here want to buy vehicles (that pollute less),” Schoene said. “That’s why eTec chose Oregon in the first place. We are receptive to new technologies.”

But competition to attract EV-related companies is fierce. The report refers to an example in which an unnamed Southern state paid $75 million up front to refurbish a factory to attract a new automotive start-up. The state also offered the company $200 million in tax breaks.

In order to maintain Oregon’s competitiveness, the report’s authors recommend the Legislature adopt an electric vehicle manufacturing component into the BETC; the Legislature rejected such a provision in 2009. Adding EV manufacturing to the BETC will be discussed during the current legislative session, according to Cogen.

“BETC has been really effective at establishing our leadership in the clean energy sector,” Cogen said. “When it comes to incentives, we don’t have the money that other states like Ohio and Michigan can put on the table. I’m hopeful they make these (BETC) changes while not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”

Another recommendation in the report is to create a Transportation Electrification Tax Credit, which would be used for electric vehicles and infrastructure. Schoene said it is too early in the process to say how such a credit would work, but that it is something the state will look at in the near future.

“Right now, if you and I purchased an electric vehicle, we would get a $1,500 state tax credit in addition to what the federal government offers,” Schoene said. “We are looking at expanding that tax credit.”

But despite tax credits, prices for electric vehicles remain high. The retail price for a Nissan Leaf, for example, is expected to be approximately $28,000. But Cogen said the cost of an electric vehicle can be recouped over a car’s life cycle, and more easily for fleets of vehicles. The report directs the state to set purchase standards for state-funded fleets of passenger cars and light-duty trucks.

“EVs cost more up front than gas vehicles,” Cogen said. “But for fleets, it’s about life-cycle costs. If you average out the life cycle of a car, electricity is less expensive than gas as a way to power vehicles.”

Some would say the state can’t afford not to invest in the electric vehicle industry. The report says that as a state, consumers spend $12 billion on fossil fuels per year.

“Our challenge right now is understanding the opportunity we have in front of us, and figuring out which investment we need to take advantage of,” Cogen said. “With this report, we’ve produced a real road map. I hope we take it.”

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