A Marion County Circuit Court judge on Wednesday potentially blew a hole in the budget of the embattled Oregon Department of Energy. Judge Tracy Prall ruled that the agency improperly collected millions of dollars from a group of nine public utilities and said ODOE must give the money back. ODOE collects what's called an "energy supplier assessment" from utilities. In 2015, the utilities sued the agency, arguing it had failed comply with a law requiring it to explain to the utilities why they were being assessed and how the money collected, about $6.5 million a year, would be used. The...
