The Oregon Senate on Wednesday is expected to confirm two long-time colleagues for jobs on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.

One is Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli of John Day, who was first elected to the Senate in 1996.

He is the longtime Senate minority leader, which can be interpreted in two ways. One is that his fellow Republicans have been pleased enough with his leadership to keep him in charge. The other is that Republicans have been unable to win a majority in the Senate during his tenure.

After the Senate approves his appointment to the power council, the 13 Republican senators will choose his successor as caucus leader. One likely candidate is Deputy Republican Leader Tim Knopp of Bend. During the 2017 Legislature, Knopp emerged as a key Senate player for his ability to collaborate with Milwaukie Democrat Kathleen Taylor on workplace legislation. Knopp also was majority leader while serving in the House, so he knows what it’s like on both sides of the power equation. Another potential candidate I’ve heard mentioned is Sen. Herman Baertschiger Jr., R-Grants Pass.

The Senate also will lose Democrat Richard Devlin of Tualatin, whom Gov. Kate Brown appointed along with Ferrioli to the power council. Devlin, a former Senate majority leader, is known as the Legislature’s budget guru for his work as co-chair of the Joint Ways & Means Committee. Among Democrats, there is no obvious choice to replace him in that role. Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, appoints the Senate committee chairs, usually Democrats, and vice chairs.

During the 2017 Legislature, Devlin was a good pairing with House Ways & Means Co-Chair Nancy Nathanson of Eugene. They worked collegially, with neither trying to upstage the other. Although it would be unfair to pigeonhole them, Devlin is seen as more of a detail-oriented, spreadsheet legislator and Nathanson as more of a people person.

• Less water, less need for electricity: Gov. Brown will head to the international climate talks in Bonn, Germany, this weekend. On Monday, she heralded that work by issuing executive orders to expand the state’s commitment to electric vehicles and to toughen environmental standards for buildings.

She emphasized that Oregon, unlike the Trump administration, is committed the Paris Agreement targets on reducing greenhouse emissions.

Brown pushed an aggressive timeline to achieve “net zero energy” buildings — structures that consume no more energy than they produce through solar power or other alternative energy. That effort will start with embracing “high performance energy targets” when remodeling state buildings.

Building codes for new public and private construction also will toughened over time to require greater energy and water efficiency. For example, high-efficiency water fixtures will be required in all new construction as of 2020.

I asked the Governor’s Office about the economic cost of these requirements and have not heard back.

• Legislature needs intelligent men, women: Among the job openings posted by the Legislature is this one: “We are seeking 10 intelligent and well-organized men and women who would like to work in the State Capitol Building, Salem, Oregon as a committee assistant for a fiscal, revenue, or policy committee.” The temporary positions, listed as being for January and February 2018, pay $22 an hour.

The job posting also says: “Minimum qualifications are at least three years of clerical experience. However, in past sessions, college graduates have joined us to both earn money and gain a real-life experience in a public policy setting.

“Working in the Capitol is an excellent environment for meeting new people and making connections; many assistants have found continuing employment through connections made here!”

Other legislative job openings are as an unpaid intern for Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario; district outreach director for the House Republican Caucus; and communications director for House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland. The annual salary range for the outreach director is “commensurate with experience.” For the communications director, it’s $60,000 to $75,000.

• Weird video, odd explanation: Leading this week’s weird news out of the Oregon Capitol is the ongoing saga of Sen. Jeff Kruse.

The Roseburg Republican already was under fire for smoking in his office, which is illegal, and for allegations of sexual harassment. Those developments led Senate President Courtney to strip Kruse of his committee assignments. It will be interesting to watch how Kruse’s colleagues treat him when lawmakers return to the Capitol next week for three days of legislative meetings.

This week’s news is that a video of Kruse led Courtney’s chief of staff, Betsy Imholt, to contact Oregon State Police. The YouTube video shows Kruse from the waist up, smoking at first and shirtless for part of the videos. Although nothing of the sort can be seen, a note on the video claims he is performing sexual-self-gratification in front of 9-year-old girls.

Legislative officials are among the Oregonians required by state law to report potential child abuse. Imholt notified State Police after learning about the video.

A State Police officer reviewed the video multiple times and interviewed Kruse before closing the investigation as “non-criminal.” No children are seen in the video. No sex act is seen. Kruse said he was simulating a sex act as part of his investigation into internet sites trying to bilk or extort money from his constituents.

The video apparently was posted in April 2016, was up to a few hundred views earlier this week and, after news coverage about it, had topped 2,300 views as of Thursday.

The Oct. 31 State Police report says, in part: “… Senator Kruse said some time ago he became aware of potential fraud and deception occurring on the internet against individuals in his district. Specifically, Senator Kruse was told people were being targeted by individuals who were trolling on internet dating sites, faking relationships with people and then attempting to bilk money out of them by extortion or some other false statement. Senator Kruse told me he undertook an investigation of his own in order to uncover the scope of the problem and work on legislative solutions … .”

Kruse said the woman in the YouTube video threatened to share it with his Senate colleagues if he didn’t pay up. He also told State Police of another extortion attempt in which the sender threatened to send a video to Kruse’s children unless he paid money.

Dick Hughes, who writes the weekly Capital Chatter column, has been covering the Oregon political scene since 1976. Contact him at TheHughesisms@Gmail.com, Hughesisms.com/Facebook, YouTube.com/c/DickHughes or @DickHughes on Twitter.