Editorial: Tell city of Bend what you think about electrification fee
Published 7:30 am Monday, February 16, 2026
The Bend City Council is closer to implementing a fee to encourage new homes to use electrical appliances and not gas.
Councilors seem firmly behind the idea of a fee. The wiggle room is in the size of the fee, what exemptions will be allowed and when the fee will begin. Maybe you could convince councilors to drive up or drive down the fee. Maybe you could convince councilors that smaller homes, “affordable housing,” or some sort of income test exempts people from the fee or reduces it. And you might be able to sway councilors to delay implementation. It does seem the fee is coming.
The electrification fee would add to the cost of new residential construction if gas appliances were chosen over electricity. It would encourage people to pick an electric furnace, an electric water heater, electric dryer and so on. If they pick gas-powered appliances for some or all of the options, they would pay the fee, paying more the more they pick.
It would only apply to new residential construction. It does not change anything for existing homes. It does not change anything for businesses.
The tentative consensus is a maximum fee of about $1,954. Some councilors wanted more and some less. That is where they landed last week in a compromise. That fee is an approximation of the social cost of choosing natural gas appliances over electricity. It’s an estimate, of course. And the city may further modify it based on the square footage of a home.
The plan under consideration is to use any revenue from the fee to create a program to help the installation of electric appliances, such as heat pumps and water heaters.
There are complications. For instance, Pacific Power — which supplies power to many homes in Bend — may face challenges moving away from using fossil fuels for power generation. If fossil fuels are still generating much of the electricity, switching to electric appliances doesn’t have much of a benefit.
The discussion about the fee is continuing. You can tell the Bend City Council what you think by emailing council@bendoregon.gov. There is more information about the fee and how it might be calculated here: tinyurl.com/Bendefee.