Eugene, Oregon — In a 6-1 vote on Wednesday, October 28th, the Eugene City Council adopted the Residential Energy Performance Disclosure Requirement ordinance, a policy commonly referred to as a Home Energy Score requirement. The vote places Eugene among four other Oregon cities, Portland, Hillsboro, Milwaukie and Bend, that have similar Home Energy Score ordinances. The vote comes in the midst of a larger trend of cities adopting a variety of policies to aid community members navigating home retrofits and efficiency upgrades as support for building electrification grows in Oregon, and nationwide in the face of efforts to undermine existing climate policy at the Federal level.

“We applaud the City Council for taking this common sense step and establishing a home energy score requirement in Eugene. This policy will ensure that home buyers have the information that they need to make informed choices when making what is often the most important financial decision in their lives,” said Bethany Cotton, Conservation Director with Cascadia Wildlands. “The vote is an important step forward to tackling building emissions, reducing energy costs, and meeting the City’s Climate Recovery Ordinance goals to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030.”

The adoption of the ordinance is the first major step from the City to reduce building emissions since the Ninth Circuit’s April 2023 decision on the Berkley building electrification requirement, which invalidated the City’s February 2023 residential building electrification ordinance. 4%).

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