Rainmaker Rankings September 20-26, 2026
Weekly Scoring Table
| Rank | Leader / Organization | This Week | Overall | Articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pacific Power | +3 | +3 | 1 |
| 2 | Ron Wyden | +1 | +7 | 1 |
Articles Scored This Week
Pacific Power to charge new Oregon data centers for all costs associated with growing energy need
Date: September 23, 2026
Leader / Organization: Pacific Power
Score: +3
Score Headline: Makes new data centers pay the full cost of their electiricy demands
Score Explanation: Oregon may have finally figured out how to stop your electric bill from paying for new data centers. Large data centers can require new power infrastructure. Historically, some of those costs could be spread across other utility customers.
Oregon’s POWER Act was passed in 2025 to change that by requiring a separate rate class for large energy users and protecting households and businesses from those costs. PGE took the first major step: its new data-center rates rose about 29%, while rates for other customers declined.
Now Pacific Power is going further for new data centers. If a new data center requires new power infrastructure, the data center pays for them. If new transmission is needed, the data center pays its share.
CUB calls it the strongest agreement yet from a for-profit Oregon electric utility under the POWER Act.
The POWER Act’s chief sponsors were Pam Marsh, Mark Owens, Janeen Sollman, Dacia Grayber and Jeff Golden, with CUB and other advocates pushing for the change.
The basic idea: if your project creates the cost, you pay the cost, not everyone else. The agreement still needs approval from the Oregon Public Utility Commission.
Map of Oregon electric utility territories: https://www.oregon.gov/puc/utilities/Documents/MAP-Electric-Company.pdf
How One Oregon Politician Plans To Use His Power To Keep The Trail Blazers In Portland Bill Oram
Date: September 25, 2026
Leader / Organization: Ron Wyden
Score: +1
Score Headline: Making Tom Dundon’s problem every NBA owner’s problem
Score Explanation: Oregon has committed up to $365 million in bonds toward renovating the Moda Center, but that funding can’t move forward until key pieces are in place, including local funding commitments and a long-term Blazers lease.
With negotiations making little visible progress, Ron Wyden is applying pressure somewhere else: the NBA’s other 29 owners.
As the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, Wyden reminded NBA owners that professional sports benefit from valuable federal tax policies involving arena financing, franchise purchases and rising team values, and urged them to pressure Dundon to reach a deal.
Wyden has used this kind of leverage before. In 2023, he opened a Senate Finance investigation into the PGA Tour’s proposed Saudi deal and later introduced legislation targeting tax advantages connected to it.
The message to NBA owners is pretty simple: don’t let one arena fight become a reason for Congress to start taking a harder look at the tax benefits professional sports owners receive.
