Background Information:

In 2018, Portland voters approved the community-designed Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) ballot initiative with the affirmative vote of 65% of Portland voters. Since then, the program has invested millions into Portland communities and critical climate programs throughout our city. Examples of funded projects include solar panels and energy efficiency upgrades to affordable multifamily housing complexes, funding to care for the city’s street trees, distributing electric vehicles, school buses and bicycles, replacing heavily concreted areas with community gardens and nature spaces, and emergency deployment of efficient cooling devices to Portlanders who are vulnerable to extreme heat.

Despite the significant impacts of PCEF grants so far, some politicians have expressed support for changing the program to divert money to projects unrelated to climate, citing higher-than-expected revenue going into the fund. PCEF is funded by a 1% business license surcharge on the Portland sales of billion-dollar retailers and priority is given to projects that support a renewable energy transition, climate adaptation, and disaster resilience in communities of color, low-income communities, and others who are most susceptible to the impacts of climate change.

Background Information:

The City of Portland has a long history of taking action to protect its communities from the risks of the fossil fuel industry. However, our current city council has deviated from that path. In 2023, journalists exposed how City Commissioners engineered a backroom deal with a crude oil transloading company (Zenith Energy) in NW Portland’s Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub to allow the company to continue to transport crude oil through their facility while also allowing so-called “renewable fuels” transloading without scrutiny or public engagement. Dozens of community organizations and neighborhood associations have been fighting to undo this dirty deal. State air quality permits for Zenith Energy cannot be renewed without the City of Portland signing off on a land use compatibility statement, which the city could rescind at any time.

In addition to crude oil’s major contribution to human-caused climate change, oil train derailments and fossil fuel tank breaches both pose major risks to City of Portland communities. A 2020 study of the CEI Hub commissioned by Multnomah County and the City of Portland’s Bureau of Emergency Management found that:

• More than 90% of all liquid fuel in Oregon is stored at facilities in the CEI Hub

• There is an estimated 26% likelihood of a major seismic event by the year 2070, and the average tank was built in 1954, well before modern seismic standards had been established.

• Total potential releases from the materials stored in tanks at the CEI Hub range from 94.6 million to 193.7 million gallons, equivalent to the size of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico that was the country's largest oil spill to date.

• The monetized costs could range up to $2.6 billion and based on prior spills, total costs and damages would likely be many multiples of the monetized amount.

Background Information:

It is no secret that Multnomah County residents breathe the dirtiest air in Oregon and face the highest risk of pollution-related cancer from air toxics. Air pollution disproportionately impacts low-income residents and people of color in City of Portland neighborhoods.

In November 2022, Multnomah County issued a report titled, “A Review of the Evidence: Public Health and Gas Stoves” and concluded that, “To protect against pollution-driven respiratory problems, we recommend a transition away from combusting appliances in favor of healthy electric alternatives whenever possible.” [source]

The Sierra Club then released a report in March 2024 alongside Verde, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Beyond Toxics, and RMI showing that methane gas appliances in Multnomah County release a cumulative 1,000 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx) every year, the second-largest source of smog-forming air pollution after cars and trucks. The report calls on Multnomah County to establish air quality standards that will phase out NOx-emitting appliances over a reasonable period of time. There is a precedent for this: in 2023, San Francisco’s Bay Area Air Quality Management District decided to allow only zero-NOx appliances to be sold starting in 2027.

In addition to indoor appliances like furnaces, water heaters, and stoves, gas-powered leaf blowers also impair Portlanders’ quality of life, and their negative health impacts are felt by landscape workers, who are predominately people of color. Gas leaf blowers produce significant noise pollution that can lead to negative health outcomes such as stroke, high blood pressure, heart attack, tinnitus, and hearing impairment. Gas leaf blowers also emit significant amounts of air pollution. A recent study demonstrated that running a gas leaf blower for just one hour produces the same level of pollution as driving a midsize sedan 1,100 miles – the equivalent of a road trip from Portland to southern California.

In 2024, Portland City Council unanimously passed an ordinance to phase out the use of gas handheld or backpack leaf blowers on public and private property within Portland beginning in 2026, at which time the use of gas leaf blowers will still be allowed from October to December.  A year-round prohibition will go into effect in 2028. The legislation will also offset costs for small businesses that experience a disproportionate hardship transitioning to electric leaf blowers.

Background information: 

The City of Portland and Multnomah County has been working to decrease its carbon emissions for nearly 30 years now, with the goal of being at net zero emissions by 2050. In order to achieve this goal, many things will need to change, but mainly our transportation systems (responsible for 44% of emissions) and buildings (38% of emissions). While overall emissions have been declining since 2000, transportation sector emissions continue to increase to 3% over 2000 levels. [source]

Background information:

In an urbanized city, integrating nature into the built landscape can have significant benefits to both environmental and human health. Green infrastructure like trees, parks, bioswales, streams, rivers, wetlands and natural areas can help clean our air and water, reduce temperatures and increase climate resilience in our communities. It also provides habitat for local wildlife and access to natural human residents. Portland had once been a national leader in enacting policies and programs which integrated nature into our urban fabric, but many of those initiatives or policies have become stagnant.

Background information: 

The fossil fuel industry expends substantial amounts of resources each year to confuse the public about its activities (i.e. presenting their activities as good for the environment through greenwashing). These companies lobby public officials and make campaign contributions to prevent regulation of their dangerous operations. Recent reporting shows that NW Natural, Oregon’s oldest fossil fuel corporation, spent over $1 million to try to reverse City of Eugene policy to limit new gas appliances, making them the second largest campaign finance contributor in Oregon in 2023.