6 The Mainline From Executive VP Oregon average fuel prices are climbing— with a higher price outlook ahead: • Gas, regular $4.43 (two months ago: $3.59; one year ago: 4.03) • Diesel $4.29 (two months ago: $4.14; one year ago: 4.60) (Reported 4/14/24 by AAA at: www.gasprices. aaa.com.) Rising Electricity Rates = Barometer for Small Business Cost Inflation Portland General Electric (PGE) power rates in Oregon are up more than 30% since 2022. An array of costly challenges mean even higher prices could be on the way. After a long run with power prices only creeping higher, PGE and PacifiCorp utilities face an extraordinary rate spike and the prospect of large hikes every year. PGE, the state’s largest electricity supplier, now annually asks regulators for major rate increases. Double-digit energy inflation is a proxy for cost-of-living, which indicates a troubling trend about regional unaffordability for small business, workers, and consumers alike. Employer and worker affordability is greatly-reduced by higher costs of energy, labor, transportation, housing, consumer goods, credit, insurance, tax, and burdens of new regulation. Now, the once comparatively stable electricity rates—a barometer for small business cost and worker cost-of-living— appear to have exploded. The explosion impacts small business and workers alike, because energy cost hikes are largely spurred by naïve government-led policies forcing suppliers to spend big to deliver power, natural gas, gasoline, and diesel. t Rex Storm, AOL Executive VP, leads the association’s team of fifteen professionals and other contracted resources to provide valued service and voice for Oregon’s logging and forest operator sector. He has represented forest contractor success statewide in forest and business policymaking for three decades. He is a Certified Forester, a Certified Family Forest landowner, and lifelong advocate for small business and forestry. Continued →
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