The City of Portland is considering a pair of policies to charge local polluters for their carbon and air pollution impact on our local communities.
In 2020, Portland City Council passed a Climate Emergency Declaration, which set forth a City wide mobilization effort to initiate greater climate action, resources, and collaboration that prioritizes frontline communities to restore a safe climate. The Clean Air / Healthy Climate proposal is an important step towards reaching some of these ambitious goals, rightfully placing the cost on those entities responsible for polluting our City while prioritizing community health and resilience in programs it will fund. Please submit comments in support to help ensure the worst local polluters pay for their negative impacts to local residents and the environment.
Submit a comment to support the Clean Air/Healthy Climate proposals
Comments due by Friday, January 8 at 12 p.m.
Please show your support for the Clean Air / Healthy Climate proposals and submit comments to help further strengthen these important policies!
Submit CommentTalking Points
- Support the Clean Air and Healthy Climate policies and urge staff to take steps to strengthen them.
- Increase the carbon fee in the Healthy Climate policy proposal to better align with the “Shadow Carbon Price Policy” recently adopted in December 2020.
- Lower the threshold of the Healthy Climate carbon fee to hold more of the top carbon producers in our community accountable for their carbon emissions.
- Prioritize funding landscape resilience and adaptation programs/projects through the Healthy Climate proposal to bring multiple benefits to frontline communities.
- Increase the fee schedule for the Clean Air protection surcharge to incentivizes pollution reduction and/or increase funding for local community solutions.
- Consider adding mechanisms to both policies to include several significant non stationary local sources of carbon and air pollution like NW Natural Gas, Union Pacific Railyards at Albina/Brooklyn, etc.
Thank you for taking action to ensure our community takes action on climate and holds local polluters accountable. Keep an eye out for additional opportunities to weigh in on these proposals in the coming months.