A complaint has been filed in an Oregon court alleging Secretary of State Bev Clarno abused her power and lacked legal reasoning in rejecting two proposed ballot measures aimed at encouraging the state to use electricity from carbon-free sources and renewable sources for all retail electricity by 2045.

Clarno last year rejected Petitions 48 and 49 that sought voter signatures to be placed on this November’s ballot, claiming they violated the state constitution’s single-subject requirement for ballot initiatives.

Petitioners include NAACP’s Eric Richardson, head of the Eugene/Springfield, OR, chapter, Lake Oswego Sustainability Network President Lisa Adatto and Chrissy Reitz, a Hood River, OR, school board member.

Sources told NGI the proposals may be intended as a hedge against the state legislature failing again this year to pass decarbonization measures.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and the state’s major gas and electric utilities supported last year’s state House Bill 2020, but none of them were involved in the two rejected ballot measures.

The Marion County Circuit Court, where the petition on the ballot issues is pending, last fall ruled in favor of Clarno’s rejection of another petition that would protect forest waters, also for violating the single-subject requirement.