The shadiest people in Salem

The Oregon Department of Energy has done some highly questionable things over the years. Remember Cylviagate? Too funny. One guy down there went to prison for bribery; it's a wonder there weren't more.

My friend Ted Sickinger of the Oregonian is on to their shenanigans, and he's uncovered a new round, here.

Oregon Department of Energy staff are ignoring state administrative rules, requirements laid out in an Energy Facility Siting Council project authorization, and facts on the ground to help developers of a proposed natural gas plant in Umatilla County meet a Sept. 23 deadline to begin construction....

Dan Serres, conservation director for Columbia Riverkeeper, described the agency’s actions as outrageous.

“We thought Perennial would break the conditions of the site certificate, but they broke the law,” he said. “Now, unbelievably, the Oregon Department of Energy is going to argue that they met the terms of the site certificate. Someone needs to investigate the behavior of this agency. If it isn’t prepared to help Oregon meet its climate goals or apply the site certificate that they themselves wrote, then someone else needs to step in and correct this.”

I wish that instead of playing shadow district attorney against protesters, U.S. Attorney Billy Bob would go back in there and figure out who's still stealing what. I also wish Governor Kate would drain the swamp at Energy. The state would be better off without an Energy Department than with a corrupt one. Instead, the guv issues a stern press release and goes back to other things.

(Thanks to an alert reader for correcting an error in a previous version of this post.)