Days before lawmakers once again weigh the fate of Oregon's embattled Department of Energy, Gov. Kate Brown sent top legislative Democrats her own vision for how reshape the agency.
The governor's office also confirmed to The Oregonian/OregonLive that Department of Energy employees had received subpoenas Tuesday to testify in an ongoing criminal investigation by the Oregon Department of Justice into the handling of energy tax credits.
It was unclear whether the subpoenas were served to current or former employees, and the department did not immediately respond to a request for the subpoenas. But Bryan Hockaday, a spokesman for Brown, said the employees would likely be called to testify in July.
The department has struggled for years, facing accusations of wasted public funds and possible fraud in its energy tax credit program -- which prompted the criminal investigation and led lawmakers to consider overhauling the department.
Brown said she wants to preserve the Department of Energy rather than scrap it, which was among the options laid out by Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, when he and House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, announced a special joint oversight committee in December.
"The Department of Energy is a critical component of our efforts to curtail climate change; that work will be less effective unless we collaboratively rebuild confidence in the agency and its programs," Brown wrote in the letter to Kotek and Courtney, obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Hockaday said the governor did not intend to keep the legislative committee from reaching its own recommendations. But Hockaday said the agency is crucial to helping the state meet its carbon emission goals.
"It's again in the spirit of collaboration and discussion of the agency and its role and what is needed to accomplish the state's greenhouse gas reduction goals," Hockaday said. "She really wants to respect the work of the joint committee, allow them to work and develop their recommendations."
The legislative committee is scheduled to meet Monday in Salem. Brown's recommendations were based on a review of the Department of Energy by the Department of Administrative Services.
Documents: review of Oregon Department of Energy
Gov. Kate Brown asked the Department of Administrative Services to review several programs within the Oregon Department of Energy. Here are the findings on the following programs:
In an interview Friday, Courtney suggested it was too early to conclude that the state should keep the energy department.
"I want to be respectful of the governor, but I'm not there," Courtney said. "This is a serious effort the speaker and I had put together."
Courtney said the governor's suggestions should not preclude the legislative oversight committee from developing its own recommendations, "up to and including abolishment of the Department of Energy."
A spokeswoman for Kotek could not be reached for comment late Friday.
Brown listed several changes she would like to see at the department, including a request that lawmakers allow three energy tax credits administered by the department to sunset in 2017.
The governor said she plans to ask the Legislature for funds in 2017 to move the department's small-scale energy loan program, intended to encourage alternative energy projects, to Business Oregon, the state's business development agency.
In early January, state Treasurer Ted Wheeler called for Brown to suspend the troubled energy loan program until the state completes an evaluation of the program.
Wheeler pointed out the program had a $20 million deficit and wasn't bringing in enough cash to repay bonds issued to fund the program beyond 2019 or 2020. A series of bad loans, from $18 million the state lent a Clatskanie ethanol plant that went bankrupt to $12.1 million for a Linn County solar company, cut into the cash flow the program needed to stay afloat.
Brown's letter made no recommendation on whether to suspend, bail out or do something else with the energy loan program.
In a statement, agency director Michael Kaplan expressed appreciation for the governor's recommendations.
"The work that the Department of Energy has done and will do on behalf of the state is vital to Oregon's future," Kaplan said. "We agree wholeheartedly with the path the Governor has laid out and look forward to continuing our work with the Legislature."
-- Hillary Borrud
503-294-4034; @hborrud