St. Vincent de Paul

The Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC) has been an integral part of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County’s (SVDP) housing and business developments in the last five years.  SVDP is Lane County’s largest nonprofit human services organization and serves over 84,000 people every year.  Since 1990 we have developed 1,000 units of housing for working families, seniors and people with disabilities in the last 20 years.  To help fund our charitable activities we run 10 retail thrift stores and five independent waste-based businesses. All told we employ 360 people in Lane, Linn and Marion counties.

Low-income people are often excluded from “green” technology because of the cost. As a result, they live in housing that is not as energy efficient (which leads to higher costs) and not as healthy for them and their children. The BETC has allowed SVDP to include alternative energy systems (such as solar hot water systems) in five affordable housing projects since 2005.  This investment has lowered the utility bills for 165 low-income Lane County citizens. While a decrease of $10 or $20 a month may not seem like a lot, it makes a world of difference to people struggling to pay for groceries and other necessities.

The BETC program has also helped SVDP make our business operations more efficient.  We utilized BETC’s to pay for energy efficiency upgrades at our main office, cutting our costs as well as our emissions.  BETC’s also helped purchase an energy-efficient furnace at our Aurora Glass Factory.  The furnace has cut our utility bills in half.  This cost savings is one of the things that allowed this business (which employs six people and provides job training for up to three people at a time) to stay operational.

We are proud to live and work in a state that recognizes the value of investing in alternative energy technology.  It’s the right thing to do for our environment as well as our economy.  We are grateful that Oregon has the wisdom to extend this program to nonprofit organizations through the pass-through system. The BETC program is a real asset to the state of Oregon and must be preserved.