45. Building Resilience Coalition

Dear Members of the Governor’s Prosperity Council, On behalf of Building Resilience, a statewide coalition of climate justice and public health, business and labor, faith and frontline communities, environmental, family, and youth organizations, and thousands of individual Oregonians, we share the attached brief, Smarter Buildings for a Stronger Oregon Economy, as a resource for the Council’s work. It is our deeply held belief that prosperity is not a number on a balance sheet. It cannot be measured by GDP, the profits of our largest industries, or Oregon's ranking on a business climate index. Enterprise, sustainable innovation, and economic growth have their place in measuring prosperity. Prosperity in the long-term is investments that broaden opportunity for all Oregonians and strengthen our long-term trajectory, not trading away our health, safety, and joy in the pursuit of more profit for the few. Oregon’s prosperity is measured by the experience of our residents. It is felt in whether a family can afford to live in a home in the community where they work, whether families can afford their utility bills, whether a parent has access to quality childcare so they can contribute fully to their community, and whether the infrastructure of daily life– homes, buildings, schools, roads, public health– is strong enough and clean enough to support a thriving society. A truly thriving state is not simply a cheap state or one that myopically proposes tax breaks for corporations and the most wealthy — it is an affordable one for all Oregonians, and a capable one, with an educated workforce, resilient communities, and a quality of life that attracts the most talented people and the most innovative firms. This Council’s work offers an important opportunity to connect Oregon’s economic strategy with its homes and businesses. The following brief pulls from multiple sources of recent research and demonstrates the need to prioritize investments in: ● Business Climate: Reducing Costs, Increasing Competitiveness, and Protecting Oregon Businesses from Energy Volatility ● Workforce: Building the Trades Pipeline for Oregon's Fastest-Growing Energy Sector ● Equity, Resilience, and a Managed Transition: Ensuring the Economic Benefits Are Broadly Shared ● Tools for Growth: Incentives, Land Use, and Economic Development Tools for the Electrification Era Policies that advance healthy, affordable, resilient homes and buildings that run on renewable energy are not separate, and should not be separate from economic policy; they are economic policy. The quality, efficiency, and resilience of our buildings directly affect the strength and success of our people and economy. Sincerely, The Building Resilience Steering Committee

Smarter Investing in Buildings for a Stronger Oregon Economy Executive Summary Core thesis: The policies the Building Resilience coalition advocates for — energy efficiency in buildings, strategic electrification, and community resilience infrastructure — are not environmental policies with economic side effects. They are economic policies with environmental co-benefits. They reduce household and business energy costs, create high-road in-state jobs, expand Oregon's tax base, improve workforce participation, and strengthen Oregon's competitive position at a moment when the national clean energy economy is undergoing a structural transformation. Central ask to the Prosperity Council: Integrate building electrification, energy efficiency, and community resilience into the Council's recommendations on all three strategic priorities — Business Climate, Workforce, and Tools for Growth — as fundamental economic development strategies. We have included some ideas for funding these priorities below, through existing policies like the Climate Protection Program and passing a Climate Resilience Superfund. Statistics of note:

Oregonians spent $19.5 billion on energy in 2022, with roughly $8.5 billion spent on energy to power homes, businesses, and industries. (ODOE Biennial Energy Report, 2024)
The average Oregonian could lose ~$12,000 per year in income from the effects of greenhouse gas emissions under a business-as-usual scenario (Oregon Energy Strategy, 2025)
Oregon’s goal of installing 500,000 heat pumps by 2030 will deliver median savings of $300 to $650 a year, depending on heat pump efficiency, for 92 - 100% of the 49 million homes analyzed. (ODOE 2025 Biennial Heat Pump Report)
Oregon employed 57,860 clean energy workers in 2025, with clean energy accounting for 59.2% of the state's total energy workforce — ranking Oregon 8th nationally (E2 Clean Jobs America, 2025)
The Oregon Energy Strategy projects 9,200 to 16,500 net new energy sector jobs by 2035, driven primarily by efficiency and electrification investments, with buildings’ jobs projected to grow 9–12% (ODOE, Oregon Energy Strategy Jobs Analysis, 2025)
Independent modeling estimates Oregon's clean energy transition will add $2.5 billion annually to GDP by 2050, with $49 billion in cumulative economic benefits (Energy Innovation, 2022) Policies of note:
The Oregon Energy Strategy establishes the least-cost pathways for Oregon's economy and finds that it runs through efficiency and electrification. The Governor’s Executive Order 25-29 directs agencies to take action on Energy Strategy recommendations. A delay in implementing these least-cost approaches risks higher costs and economic burdens for businesses, families, and the government.
The Climate Protection Program (‘CPP’) is a business-minded solution, developed over years of public process with considerable industry input. By providing a predictable, flexible path for reducing 1

emissions, the CPP will accelerate innovation, cut costs for consumers, and create thousands of jobs in the clean economy. Moreover, Community Climate Investments as a component of the CPP can help fund projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Oregon's environmental justice communities.

Heatwaves, like the 2021 Heatdome, killed more than 100 people and had economic impacts between $1.3 billion and $4.6 billion due to mortality and health effects. The economic ripple effects of smoke-related health issues and lost productivity are estimated to cost Oregon up to $1 billion in GDP during heavy smoke years. (Economic Costs of Climate Change in Oregon, 2024)
The state must pass a sustainable revenue and funding measure for heat pumps, community resilience hubs, and other public safety and wildfire mitigation and adaptation solutions to address urgent and growing climate damages. Policy solutions like Climate Resilience Superfund legislation can create a sustained revenue source from multinational oil and gas companies - not local Oregon businesses nor taxpayers - to pay for the pollution and damages these companies have caused. SECTION 1: BUSINESS CLIMATE Reducing Costs, Increasing Competitiveness, and Protecting Oregon Businesses from Energy Volatility Prosperity Council Goal: Explore and recommend strategies for regulatory streamlining and potential changes in tax policy that would stimulate GDP growth and long-term tax revenue. Core argument: Volatile fossil fuel costs are a structural drag on Oregon's business climate. Buildings that run on efficient electric systems insulate businesses and households from energy price shocks, reduce operating costs, and free up capital for other investments. Strategic regulatory frameworks — Building Performance Standards, updated energy codes, and incentives for heat pumps and other efficiency measures — can reduce costs and deliver certainty for businesses planning capital upgrades. 1.1 Renewable Energy and Efficiency as Smart Economic Policy
Renewable electricity and electrification are not just cheaper on average — they are more price-stable, insulating businesses from the global commodity price swings that have destabilized energy costs since 2020. (Oregon Energy Strategy, 2025)
The Oregon Energy Strategy found that the least-cost pathway for Oregon's entire economy depends on high levels of energy efficiency and electrification. Delaying building and transportation electrification increases statewide costs and strands capital. (ODOE Oregon Energy Strategy, 2025)
Buildings account for nearly 20% of energy use in Oregon's commercial sector. Oregon's new Building Performance Standard (BPS), launched in 2025, creates a structured compliance pathway for large commercial buildings — a regulatory certainty tool for business owners planning capital investments. (ODOE, 2025) 2

1.2 The Cost of Energy Burden and Why Efficiency Is Fiscal Policy

High energy burden reduces household disposable income and suppresses local economic activity — it is both a social equity issue and a drag on consumer spending in local economies.
Weatherization delivers significant returns: for every dollar invested in home weatherization, $0.90 to $1.40 is gained in direct energy benefits — before counting health, productivity, and avoided-cost benefits (Brookings Institution, 2024)
Oregon's BPS program and Building Energy Codes establish a performance floor that reduces long-run operating costs for building owners, increases asset values, and reduces tenant energy burden — all markers of a stronger commercial real estate sector. 1.3 Regulatory Streamlining: Permitting, Codes, and Incentive Certainty
Streamlined permitting for heat pump installations and building energy upgrades reduces contractor costs and increases project throughput — a regulatory reform that stimulates private investment without public subsidy.
Consistent, predictable energy codes give builders and manufacturers the market certainty to invest in training, equipment, and supply chains — the Prosperity Council's stated interest in "tools that reflect today's business ecosystem."
Oregon ranked #9 nationally for energy efficiency in ACEEE's State Energy Efficiency Scorecard (2025), recognizing the BPS program and equity-focused efficiency policies — a competitive advantage for attracting businesses that prioritize ESG and operating cost certainty (ODOE, 2025 Year in Review) SECTION 2: WORKFORCE Building the Trades Pipeline for Oregon's Fastest-Growing Energy Sector Prosperity Council Goal: Explore and recommend opportunities to modernize Oregon's workforce development systems to improve the effectiveness and relevance of training programs for our workforce and employers in growing sectors. Core argument: The clean energy transition in buildings — heat pump installation, weatherization, EV charging, grid upgrades, microgrid development — is creating a large, durable, and geographically distributed surge in demand for skilled trades workers. Oregon's workforce development systems must align with this demand now, or cede those jobs to workers from other states. A truly prosperous Oregon is one where Oregon families have dignified labor and high-road jobs and opportunities that allow their families to thrive. 2.1 The Occupations Oregon Needs Right Now
The Oregon Energy Strategy's jobs analysis identifies electricians, construction laborers, and HVAC/refrigeration mechanics as the occupations projected to see the greatest number of new employees by 2035 (ODOE Jobs Analysis, 2025) 3
Buildings sector jobs are projected to grow between 4,500 and 5,500 by 2035 (9–12% growth from 2024), with gains concentrated in commercial HVAC, residential HVAC, and related construction subsectors (ODOE Jobs Analysis, 2025) 2.2 Geographic Equity: Eastern Oregon and Rural Communities
The Oregon Energy Strategy projects roughly 6,500 new energy sector jobs in Eastern Oregon by 2035 — a 33% increase from the 2024 baseline — driven by clean electricity generation, transmission, and electrification (ODOE Jobs Analysis, 2025)
This represents a proportionally larger opportunity for rural communities than for the Portland metro area, making workforce alignment a geographic equity and rural development imperative.
Rural communities along the electrical trades pipeline (electricians, lineworkers, HVAC technicians) stand to gain substantially — but only if training programs are accessible and proximate to where workers live. 2.3 The Workforce Gap: A Policy Risk for Oregon
The ODOE Jobs Analysis explicitly warns: "If an adequate workforce is unavailable and the pipelines for training and developing the workforce are not sufficient, this could create a significant barrier to meeting our state's energy goals or to ensuring that Oregonians capture those in-state job opportunities." (ODOE Jobs Analysis, 2025)
Oregon clean energy jobs grew nearly 2% in 2024 and 11.2% since 2020, but workforce development programs have not kept pace with demand. (E2 Clean Jobs America, 2025)
ODOE awarded $2 million in workforce grants in 2025 to six organizations, including Warm Springs Construction Enterprise, Klamath Community College, and Northwest Native Chamber — demonstrating that geographically targeted, community-based training works. (ODOE, 2025) 2.4 Recommendations for Workforce Development Modernization
Align community college curricula with projected occupational demand in HVAC, electrical work, weatherization, and grid infrastructure — using Oregon Energy Strategy job projections as a planning baseline.
Expand registered apprenticeship pathways in the clean building trades, with wage standards that reflect the "living wage" tier ($33–$48/hour) that energy sector jobs already cluster in. (ODOE Jobs Analysis, 2025)
Fund location-based training programs in rural Oregon and Tribal communities where energy sector job growth as a share of baseline will be highest — preventing in-state opportunities from flowing to out-of-state contractors.
Co-locate training with deployment: Programs attached to weatherization, heat pump, and EV charging deployment create immediate employment as training progresses
Establish a Clean Buildings Trades Pipeline: coordinate across ODOE, Oregon Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development, and industry partners to create a unified workforce signal aligned with building code upgrade cycles and utility electrification programs. 4

SECTION 3: EQUITY, RESILIENCE, AND THE MANAGED TRANSITION Ensuring the Economic Benefits Are Broadly Shared Core argument: A managed transition that prioritizes low-income households, rural communities, and Tribal nations for energy efficiency upgrades and resilience investments is both an equity imperative and an economic efficiency strategy — it reduces the risk of stranded assets, prevents energy burden from deepening economic inequality, and ensures Oregon's workforce pipeline draws from its full talent pool. 3.1 Energy Burden is an Economic Drag

High-energy-burden households — those spending more than 6% of income on home energy — are disproportionately concentrated in communities already facing economic hardship.
An unmanaged transition that leaves low-income and rural households on an aging, increasingly expensive fossil fuel system as other customers electrify will increase energy burden for the most vulnerable and reduce their economic participation.
Prioritizing energy efficiency upgrades and electrification assistance for high-burden households converts a fiscal liability into a recurring household income gain. 3.2 Tribal Nations: Energy Sovereignty as Economic Development
Oregon's nine federally recognized Tribes have identified energy sovereignty — the ability to control and determine their own energy infrastructure — as essential to self-determination and long-term resilience. (Oregon Energy Strategy, 2025)
Community-scale solar, battery storage, and microgrid investments on Tribal lands create local economic activity, reduce outflow of energy dollars from reservation communities, and strengthen resilience during grid outages and climate events.
Oregon's $1M grant to Warm Springs for solar and battery storage at three community sites (permanent supportive housing, affordable housing, and a community center) is a model of integrated economic and resilience investment. (ODOE/Microgrid Knowledge, 2026) 3.3 The Just Transition Workforce Dimension
Building Resilience coalition advocacy explicitly seeks "high-road jobs" — jobs with living wages, benefits, and advancement pathways — in the clean energy economy.
ODOE's Jobs Analysis found that energy sector employment growth spans all wage tiers, with the distribution remaining essentially stable — but intentional program design can tilt toward living-wage outcomes.
Workforce programs prioritizing BIPOC communities, rural workers, and returning workers can help Oregon ensure the economic gains of the clean energy transition do not simply replicate existing patterns of inequality. 5

SECTION 4: TOOLS FOR GROWTH Incentives, Land Use, and Economic Development Tools for the Electrification Era Prosperity Council Goal: Ranging from incentives to land use, explore and recommend updates to economic development tools that reflect and support today's business ecosystem. Core argument: Oregon's economic development toolkit was largely built for a fossil-fuel economy. Heat pump rebates, building performance standards, community resilience hubs, microgrids, and clean energy manufacturing incentives are not climate programs bolted onto economic development — they are the updated economic development tools of the 21st century. Orienting Oregon's incentive structures, land use frameworks, and infrastructure investment programs around building electrification and community resilience will produce durable, geographically broad economic benefits. 4.1 Energy Efficiency and Electrification Incentives as Economic Development Tools

Household-level savings from building and transportation energy efficiency and electrification function as recurring wage increases for working Oregonians, particularly those in lower income brackets who spend the highest share of income on energy.
Incentives and services from providers like Energy Trust of Oregon create economic development opportunities for employing energy efficiency and electrification contractors and installers - especially in rural and other communities with higher-than-average unemployment rates. 4.2 Community Resilience as Economic Infrastructure
The Building Resilience Coalition's work centers on the recognition that homes and buildings are Oregon's first line of defense against climate disruption — and that an unmanaged transition leaves the most vulnerable communities exposed.
Community Resilience Hubs (physical spaces with backup power, cooling/heating capacity, and community services) function as economic anchors during climate disruptions — reducing the economic toll of wildfires, heat waves, ice storms, and grid outages on local business activity and workforce participation.
Oregon's community clean energy grant program, established under HB 2021, explicitly defines Community-Based Renewable Energy projects as those that "result in increased resiliency or community stability, local jobs, economic development, or direct energy cost savings to families and small businesses." (Pacific Power/HB 2021, 2021)
Oregon has invested $12 million in microgrids, solar, and storage to power wells, schools, and Tribal facilities — including a $1M grant to Warm Springs for solar and battery storage at three community sites. (Microgrid Knowledge, 2026)
HB 2065 and HB 2066 (2025) created new frameworks for microgrid development across Oregon, passing with bipartisan support — a signal that energy resilience is understood as a broadly shared economic interest, not a partisan one. (Sustainable Northwest, 2025)
Grid transmission investment delivers broad economic returns: each $1 billion of transmission investment supports about 13,000 FTE-years of employment and $2.4 billion in economic activity. (Brattle Group, cited in Move Oregon Forward report, 2025) 6

4.3 Land Use: Compact, Connected Development Reduces Energy Costs and Infrastructure Burdens

Energy-efficient buildings in well-connected, walkable neighborhoods reduce both energy consumption and transportation costs — the two largest household expenses after food.
Oregon's existing Housing + Transportation cost burden data (ODOT, 2022) shows combined spending of 56% of household income — a structural affordability crisis that land use and building policy can address in tandem.
Buildings that meet high energy efficiency standards tend to have higher assessed values, contributing to the property tax base and supporting long-term tax revenue — a direct Prosperity Council interest. 4.4 Federal Transition Risk and Oregon's Opportunity
The federal government's rollback of IRA clean energy incentives creates short-term market uncertainty, but the structural transformation of global energy markets is already irreversible. Moreover, the Trump Administration’s War in Iran has led to a surge in fuel prices in Oregon and states across the country.
State-level incentive continuity — heat pump rebates, building upgrade incentives, clean vehicle credits, weatherization programs — fills the gap left by federal retrenchment and sends a durable market signal to manufacturers, investors, and workforce trainers like unions. CONCLUSION The Building Resilience Coalition's agenda — energy efficient buildings, strategic electrification, community resilience — maps directly onto every dimension of the Prosperity Council's economic mandate. We can reduce the cost of living and doing business in Oregon through upgrades to homes and buildings. The work creates a large, durable pathway for skilled trades jobs distributed across the state, including in rural communities. We must deploy modern economic development tools — building performance standards, resilience incentives, workforce pipelines — that fit the economy Oregon is building, not the one it is leaving behind. The Oregon Energy Strategy establishes the least-cost pathway for Oregon's economy and finds that it runs through efficiency and electrification. A delay in implementing these least-cost approaches risks higher costs and economic burdens for businesses, families, and the government. The Prosperity Council has the opportunity to give that pathway economic teeth — to ensure that Oregon's businesses, workers, and communities benefit from the structural transformation already underway in global energy markets, rather than being left behind by it. Building resilience is economic policy. It is time to treat it that way. 7

APPENDIX: KEY SOURCES AND LINKS Source Relevance Link Oregon Energy Strategy (ODOE, 2025) Least-cost pathway, job projections, https://www.oregon.gov/energy/Data-and- household cost analysis Reports/Documents/Oregon-Energy-Strat egy.pdf OES Jobs Analysis Key Findings (ODOE, 9,200–16,500 net new jobs by 2035; https://www.oregon.gov/energy/Data-and- 2025) occupation-level projections Reports/Documents/OES-Jobs-Analysis-K ey-Findings.pdf E2 Clean Jobs America (2025) 57,860 Oregon clean energy workers; https://cleanjobsamerica.e2.org/wp-conten Oregon 8th nationally t/uploads/2025/09/E2-2025-Clean-Jobs-A merica-2025_final.pdf Energy Innovation Oregon Modeling 10,000 jobs + $2.5B/yr GDP by 2050 from https://energyinnovation.org/2022/03/10/n (2022) existing policies ew-oregon-energy-policy-simulator-modell ing-shows-major-benefits-of-accelerating- climate-policies/ Oregon Clean Tech Task Force (2024) $4–8B investment, 9,000–18,000 https://apps.oregon.gov/oregon-newsroom manufacturing jobs potential /OR/GOV/Posts/Post/governor-kotek-rele ases-clean-tech-manufacturing-task-force- recommendations ODOE Biennial Energy Report (2024) $19.5B Oregon energy spend https://energyinfo.oregon.gov/ber-energy- numbers-2024 U.S. DOE Energy & Employment Report National clean energy job growth 4.2% https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2 (2024) 024-08/2024%20USEER%20FINAL.pdf Brookings: Weatherization (2024) $0.90–$1.40 energy benefit per dollar https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-u-s invested -needs-better-more-accessible-home-wea therization-programs/ Oregon HB 2065/2066 Microgrid Laws Bipartisan microgrid/resilience framework https://www.sustainablenorthwest.org/blog (2025) /microgrids-oregon-4-2025 ODOT Oregon Transit and Housing Study 56% combined housing + transportation https://www.oregon.gov/odot/Planning/Do (2022) cost burden cuments/ODOT_Transit_%26_Housing_St udy_Final_Report.pdf Brattle Group: Transmission Investment $1B transmission = 13,000 FTE-years, https://www.brattle.com/wp-content/upload (2011) $2.4B economic activity s/2017/10/8209_employment_and_econo mic_benefits_of_transmission_infrastructu re_investmt_pfeifenberger_hou_may_201 1_wires.pdf ODOE Biennial Heat Pump Report (2025) Median savings of $300 to $650 a year, https://www.oregon.gov/energy/data-and-r depending on heat pump efficiency, for 92 eports/Documents/2025-Biennial-Oregon- percent to 100 percent of the 49 million Heat-Pump-Report.pdf homes analyzed 8

Source Relevance Link The Economic Costs of Climate Change Heatwaves, like the 2021 Heatdome, https://www.sustainable-economy.org/eco for Oregonians. A First Look. (2024) killed more than 100 people, and had nomic-costs-of-climate-change-in-oregon- economic impacts between $1.3 billion a-first-look and $4.6 billion due to mortality and health effects. The economic ripple effects of smoke-related health issues and lost productivity are estimated to cost Oregon up to $1 billion in GDP during heavy smoke years. 9

Parent: Appendix E: Submissions & Feedback · PDF: pp. 383-392