City Hall in Bend, Oregon.
Courtesy of the City of Bend
Bend will soon charge a fee for the installation of gas appliances in newly built homes, making the Central Oregon city the second in the state to pass such a policy with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The Bend City Council passed what it called a climate pollution fee in a 4-1 vote late Wednesday after opposition from power companies, builders and union members who say the move would hurt housing affordability efforts and jobs that rely on natural gas pipe maintenance and construction. The fee will take effect next year.
Energize Bend campaign coordinator, Brennan Breen, worked for four years to get the fee passed. He said the policy isn’t perfect but it’s an important first step. Energize Bend is an advocacy organization promoting home electrification in Bend.
Bend is “building the most housing of anywhere in the state,” Breen said before the vote. “This policy is not going to make Bend an unattractive place to live, but it is going to help pave the way for other cities who are trying to meet the housing crisis.
A similar ordinance in Ashland went into effect in January.
Advocates of the fee point to Oregon’s dramatically low snowpack and early season wildfires as proof that action to combat climate change is imperative.
The decision comes ahead of a House Bill 2021 deadline. The bill, sponsored by two Democrats, Rep. Pam Marsh of southern Jackson County and Rep. Khanh Pham of outer southeast and northeast Portland mandates that electricity provided by investor-owned utilities be carbon-free by 2040. The new fee is also a way for Bend to achieve the city’s 2016 climate action resolution and align with the state’s residential energy code that goes into effect next year, supporters say.
Starting April 1, 2027, builders or developers will pay up to $2,972 to the City of Bend when they receive a permit to build a new home that uses gas to power its heating or water system, stove, dryer or fireplace. Fees could decrease if electricity is more carbon-intensive than expected but that won’t be known until next year, said Cassie Lacy, a City of Bend senior analyst.
FILE - (left) Cassie Lacy, senior management analyst for the City of Bend, discusses the electrification policy while Bend City Councilor Steve Platt looks on in Bend, Ore., on April 8, 2026.
Kathryn Styer Martínez / OPB
The fee will apply to all new single-family homes, duplexes, townhomes and accessory dwelling units, she said. It will not apply to current homes who use natural gas and new homes that have only electric appliances.
The fees will be calculated using the social cost of greenhouse gases, a monetary value assigned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the climate damage caused by one metric ton of greenhouse gases. That value will be multiplied by the metric tons of carbon emitted by each specific appliance — and its lifetime — and scaled to the size of the home.
Earlier this year, Bend City Councilors decided to discount the rate by 80%.
Related: Bend could become 2nd city in Oregon to charge for gas appliances in new homes
The city will hold funds in a Climate Pollution Fund to further combat climate impacts caused by greenhouse gases. That could include, “flooding, fires, extreme heat, and preventing such future climate impacts, including but not limited to funding building decarbonization measures,” according to public records.
The city’s Environment and Climate Committee group will provide recommendations on how to spend the money next year.
At Wednesday night’s meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Megan Perkins was the lone “no” vote on the issue. In an earlier public meeting she said the issue was extremely nuanced.
“It’s not stealing choice and raising home prices astronomically, but it’s also not the one thing that’s going to make all the difference for our climate in the future,” she said in a public meeting earlier this month. She did not elaborate on her “no” vote on Wednesday.
Cascade Natural Gas Corporation representatives have said the fee could put too much stress on the electrical grid and might increase costs for rate-payers.
Central Electric Cooperative, Inc., a cooperatively owned electric company that provides power to residents on the east side of Bend, said the impacts of the city council’s decision to approve the fee aren’t fully known but might increase rates down the line.
“CEC believes the resulting load growth and infrastructure requirements will place upward cost pressures on development and electric rates for coop members across its service territory,” said Brent Ten Pas, a Central Electric Cooperative, Inc., vice president of member and public relations by email.
Builders and workers have also raised concerns about the fee saying it could make homes more expensive and take away jobs.
Last year, a state report found that income inequality is surging in Bend as housing starts lag. The city needs to build more than 15,700 homes in the next eight years to address its housing shortfall, according to the 2025 Oregon Housing Analysis.
