Irene Gilbert, a member of the Stop B2H coalition, reviews official documents at her desk in her La Grande, Oregon home on June 10, 2025. Gilbert has spent years researching and filing public records requests related to the proposed Idaho Power transmission line, becoming one of the coalition’s most knowledgeable and persistent watchdogs in the fight to protect eastern Oregon’s landscapes.(Steve Lenz / OPB)

Tony Schick joins the Exchange. He is an investigator editor and reporter at OPB who wrote the story, "How one Oregon activist is using a decades-old liberal policy to stall green energy projects: Irene Gilbert is a 76-year-old retired state employee on a mission, fighting energy projects like large wind farms in Oregon’s rural communities."

One activist in Oregon has set the record for filing the most appeals to green energy projects in the state. Her goal is to stop wind, solar and other projects that she worries will mar the state's landscape, or take over farmland in rural Oregon.

But the secret to her success are Oregon’s laws that were put in place in the 1970’s when people were worried about the safety of nuclear power. OPB’s Tony Schick has been reporting on the challenges of developing renewable energy in Oregon, and how one activist has been able to make such a big difference in slowing projects.