Oregon is ready to kick its filthy coal habit, and now it has passed a law to hold itself to this pledge.\u00a0The Clean Energy and Coal Transition Act\u00a0blocks the state\u2019s largest power companies from purchasing coal-based electricity by 2030. By taking this important step, the state will effectively double its reliance on renewable energy in the upcoming decades. Moreover, Oregon\u2019s energy should be approximately 80% carbon-free by the year 2040.The legislation makes Oregon the first state to commit to ditching coal completely. As such, it is easily one of the most progressive energy policies in the United States.\u00a0Hawaii\u2019s\u00a0goal to go 100% renewable by 2045 and\u00a0California\u2019s\u00a0ambitious 2020 wind and solar goals deserve some credit, too, though.Oregon\u2019s coal plan is not only exciting because of its unprecedented nature, but because it was a genuinely collaborative effort from all sorts of people in the state. Legislators, citizens, environmental groups, Governor Kate Brown and even the state\u2019s two largest utility companies (Portland General Election and Pacific Power) teamed together to work out new energy goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-2157711","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n