Page 8A
NATION
East Oregonian
Friday, September 4, 2015
Thousands of gallons of oil spilled in Mississippi River
Melissa Bowerman
Ky. (AP) spilled into the river.
The tow boats were transferred or moved.
headed to November trial — River COLUMBUS,
Part of the Mississippi
The Coast Guard said moored on opposite sides
“How this type of product
was closed as crews it was working with the of the river and a long gash typically would react is that
PORTLAND (AP) — The abuse charges in a separate
trial for a woman accused of case involving the same
sex abuse involving
alleged
victim.
a 17-year-old boy
The charges were
on a track team she
brought
after
coached at a central
authorities obtained
Oregon
high
new information.
school has been
Bowerman
postponed.
pleaded not guilty
The Oregonian
to those charges
reports
Melissa
Wednesday.
Bowerman’s trial
Bowerman
had been scheduled
is
married
to
to start Sept. 14 Bowerman
Jon
Bowerman,
but is now set for
the son of Nike
Nov. 30. The 44-year-old is co-founder Bill Bowerman.
charged with sexual abuse, Jon Bowerman previously
using a child in a display of said he helped his wife coach
sexually explicit conduct and the Madras High School
luring a minor.
track team and before that the
Bowerman also faces sex Condon/Wheeler team.
CREDITS: There has been no
repercussions for energy of¿cials
Continued from 1A
the intent of lawmakers who
wanted to prohibit the prac-
tice. The energy agency also
gave a competitive advantage
to tax credit brokers who
knew they could ignore the
state’s published price rules.
The proposed rule change,
which would eliminate tax
credit price regulations going
back to mid-2012, would
retroactively legitimize these
deals.
Pressure built in recent
months for the energy agency
to rethink the effort, as the
Secretary of State’s Audits
Division started to investigate
and staff at the Oregon Legis-
lature also sought to under-
stand the reasons behind the
proposal.
Last week, lawmakers
called on the agency to
abandon its plan to retroac-
tively change the rules. Rep.
Phil %arnhart, D-Spring¿eld,
is chairman of the House
Committee on Revenue and
said in testimony submitted to
the Department of Energy that
lawmakers wanted to prevent
the deep discounts allowed by
the agency’s chief ¿nancial
of¿cer Anthony %uckley.
“Unnecessarily
large
discounts on tax credit sales
have frequently been noted as
indicative of failure to get the
best value for tax dollars, and
we have therefore persistently
focused on ways to restrict
and reduce the low price
sale of tax credits,” Barnhart
wrote. “The conversations
we’ve had and the statutes
we’ve passed demonstrate
clearly that we are interested
in tax credit programs that do
not give outsized payouts to
private investors.”
In response to the audit,
Energy Department Director
Michael
Kaplan
wrote
Thursday that the department
would allow temporary rules
to expire Sept. 18, and “revert
to the previous rules until
given direction otherwise by
the Legislature.”
Brown said in a statement
that it has “increasingly
become clear, the Business
Energy Tax Credit program,
while developed with the best
interests of the state in mind,
was not managed to the stan-
dard that Oregonians demand
and deserve.”
She said the administration
would work with the Legisla-
ture to clarify the rules.
So far, however, there do
not appear to be any reper-
cussions for energy of¿cials
who allowed people to ignore
tax credit price rules. The
Department of Energy has not
disciplined any employees for
allowing people to disregard
published price regulations,
according to spokeswoman
Rachel Wray.
Oregon issues tax credits
as an incentive to renewable
energy and ef¿ciency proM-
ects to help offset capital
costs. Recipients can use
them to reduce taxes, or sell
them to raise cash. Many
tax credit recipients are
governments and companies
that do not owe state taxes,
and a maMority of business
energy tax credits issued
from 2006 to 2014 were sold
to investors. The Department
of Energy issued tax credits
worth $968.1 million during
that period, and recipients
sold $703.6 million worth of
those credits, according to
an analysis of Department of
Energy data by the EO Media
Group/Pamplin Media Group
Capital Bureau.
In an attempt to ensure
the tax credits provide the
maximum bene¿t for the proM-
ects they are supposed incen-
tivize, the Legislature passed
a law in 2009 that required
the Department of Energy
to develop formula to set the
sales prices of credits. The
proposal the Department of
Energy abandoned Thursday
would have eliminated the
formula. The agency already
adopted a temporary version
of the rule change in March,
and Buckley and agency
director Michael Kaplan told
energy employees to process
negotiated price tax credit
sales even before the tempo-
rary rule change because they
planned to make it retroactive.
Kaplan acknowledged in
an internal email in February
he was also aware of earlier
tax credit sales that violated
state price regulations.
“This effective date will
recognize past activities, but
we are not certain at this time
how far back this recognition
will be,” Kaplan wrote in
a Feb. 17, 2015, email to
employees who oversee the
tax credits. Kaplan wrote
that he had asked Buckley
to research how far back
the retroactive rule change
should extend.
However, Kaplan and
other Department of Energy
employees
have
been
unwilling to identify which tax
credits were sold for less than
the required price. Kaplan did
not respond to the EO Media
Group/Pamplin Media Group
Capital Bureau’s request
for the results of Buckley’s
research on the issue. Kaplan
did acknowledge in an email
that he knew since he was
appointed acting director
of the agency in May 2014
that people were buying and
selling tax credits at larger
discounts than allowed under
state regulations.
“When I was appointed
acting director in May 2014,
I recognized the need for the
change, but this and other
policy and administrative
decisions, in my view, needed
to be made by a permanent
agency director,” Kaplan
wrote in an email. “When
I was appointed agency
director in November 2014, I
pursued this and other issues
that had been identi¿ed as
needing to be ¿xed. That’s
what this comes down to: our
agency has a responsibility to
improve the way we do our
work; if our rules are unclear,
we ¿x them. If our processes
need to be better de¿ned, we
do that.”
Lawmakers will likely
learn more about the Depart-
ment of Energy’s actions
when they hold interim
meetings Sept. 28 through
30. Barnhart asked Oregon’s
Legislative Revenue Of¿ce
this summer to review the
Oregon Department of
Energy’s handling of the tax
credits and Chris Allanach, a
senior economist who works
on tax credits, said he expects
to present the results of his
research on the subMect later
this month.
As recently as an Aug.
25 public hearing, energy
of¿cials appeared determined
to implement their retroactive
rule change before lawmakers
hear the report.
“The Oregon Department
of Energy will make the
ultimate decision regarding
these rules,” said Elizabeth
Ross, an energy policy
analyst who is overseeing the
agency’s rule change, at the
public hearing. “The rules
will be effective upon ¿ling
for September. We hope to do
this prior to the expiration of
the temporary rule on Sept.
18, 2015.”
investigated an oil spill
caused by the collision of
two tow boats, the U.S.
Coast Guard said Thursday.
The collision Wednesday
evening near Columbus,
Kentucky, damaged at least
one barge carrying clari¿ed
slurry oil. The cargo tank was
ruptured, causing thousands
of gallons of oil to spill into
the river, the Coast Guard
said.
No inMuries were reported.
The river is closed from
mile markers 938 to 922,
Petty Of¿cer Lora Ratliff
said.
The barge was carrying
approximately 1 million
gallons, but the breach was
only in one area, affecting
Must one of its six tanks,
Ratliff said. That tank holds
250,000 gallons, and Lt.
Takila Powell said a little
more than 120,000 gallons
barge owner, Inland Marine
Services, and an oil spill
response organization. Inland
Marine Services referred
calls to its public relations
person, Patrick Crowley,
who did not return repeated
calls seeking comment.
Both tow boat operators
had been interviewed by
Coast Guard investigators
and underwent drug and
alcohol testing, but results
aren’t back yet, Powell said.
It wasn’t known how long
the river would be closed.
“We
are
working
diligently to try to restore
our marine transportation
system,” Powell said. “We
understand that it is vital.”
The Coast Guard deter-
mined ¿ve barges were
damaged in the collision,
but nothing other than the oil
leaked into the river, Powell
said.
was apparent in the smaller
vessel. River traf¿c was
backed up on both sides,
though it wasn’t yet known
how many vessels were
backed up. By Thursday
evening, there was no sign of
a large cleanup operation.
Powell said cleanup
efforts had started with the
barge and that crews put a
boom around the ruptured
cargo tank to prevent any
residual oil from leaking
into the river. Cleanup crews
Friday will go into the river
to try to determine where the
oil is, with a goal of trying to
recover as much of the oil as
possible from the river.
Some oil was recovered
from the surface during
cleanup operations Thursday,
Powell said, but she didn’t
know how much.
Powell said the oil is thick
and has to be heated to be
when it reaches the water
that is of a lower tempera-
ture, it would solidify and
sink,” she said Thursday.
“But one of the things that
we will be doing tomorrow
is trying to determine where
that oil has migrated to, to try
to determine whether or not
it has moved down the river
or if it’s still in the vicinity
of where the collision
occurred.”
The collision happened
in the middle of the river
channel near Columbus,
Kentucky, late Wednesday,
the Coast Guard said. The
cause was under investiga-
tion. The closure stretched
17 miles south to the city of
Hickman.
Powell said it was hard
to say how much of the oil
was released mid-channel
because the barge was even-
tually pushed up to the bank.
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