What's at stake with diverting Portland Clean Energy Fund money?

If you've seen the Portland Clean Energy Fund, or PCEF, in the news lately, chances are it wasn't in a story about clean energy projects. Groups floated PCEF, designed to support carbon-reducing projects with public funding, as a source to fund everything from more police officers to Moda Center renovations. Organizations like the Kijani Collective, which focuses on advancing Black-led climate solutions, want to ensure PCEF funds are being utilized for their original intentions. PCEF was approved by 65% of Portland voters in 2018. The fund was created through a 1% surcharge on large retailers with $1 billion in national revenue and $500,000 in local revenue. PCEF invests in community-led projects to reduce carbon emissions with a heavy focus on 'frontline communities,' which refers to historically discriminated-against populations that disproportionately feel the negative effects of climate change. In fact, the first guiding principle of PCEF listed on the city's website is that it's 'justice driven.' It reads, 'Advance systems change that addresses historic and current discrimination. Center disadvantaged and marginalized groups.' In early August, an initiative to divert 25% of PCEF's annual revenue (about $500 million a year) to hire 400 more police officers failed to obtain enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. In addition, the Safer Portland campaign, which backed the initiative, was the target of nearly 100 complaints to the Oregon Secretary of State about canvassers misleading potential signatories, according to reporting by Oregon Public Broadcasting. PCEF is also mentioned as a potential funding source for renovations to the Moda Center. Portland City Council approved a term sheet Aug. 13, allowing Mayor Keith Wilson to negotiate with the Portland Trail Blazers on renovations and put the city of Portland on the hook for $120 million up front to support the project. In a message on the city's website, Wilson lists PCEF as one of the potential funding opportunities to support the renovations. He has advocated for reallocating $75 million from PCEF toward Moda, which has drawn pushback from city councilors and community advocates. So why is PCEF coming up in recent discussions about funding police officers and Moda Center renovations? Revenue from PCEF has consistently exceeded forecasts since 2019. Initially, the taxes were projected to generate from $44 million to $61 million annually. That number has since jumped to as much as $200 million. However, in 2024, the city amended its Climate Investment Plan to invest the expanded $1.6 billion in PCEF projects through 2029. Wilson notes that any use of PCEF for Moda would require another amendment to the CIP. Street Roots spoke with Kijani Collective steering committee member James Metoyer about PCEF and what sticking to its original intent looks like in practice. Metoyer is the founder and executive director of EnerCity Collaborative, a PCEF grantee that works to ensure BIPOC communities receive the benefits of a clean energy economy. Kijani Collective is currently distributing a climate resilience survey to Black Portlanders to assess needs in the face of issues like the recent wave of wildfire smoke that left Portland with the worst air quality of any major city for multiple days. Street Roots: When this story comes out, we'll be a few weeks removed from having 3 days of the worst air quality in any major city. Can you talk about how you fared through that and how PCEF relates to these sorts of natural disaster events for people? James Metoyer: I was actually at a conference in California, presenting on workforce development for energy efficiency. But my friends who were here were texting me, stating, 'You picked a really good week to not be here.' With regard to what's at stake with PCEF, the funds and how the recent wildfire smoke has kind of highlighted and made people more aware of it, I think what's really at stake is community trust and our ability to prepare for the future. Portland voters created PCEF with a clear purpose, and that was to invest in climate resilience, economic opportunity and healthier communities, especially those who have been historically left out of those investments in the past. I recognize that public safety, infrastructure and other priorities are important, but I think it's worth asking whether PCEF dollars should be redirected away from the communities they were specifically intended to serve. The recent wildfire smoke reminded us that climate change isn't a distant issue. It's affecting our families right now. The people hit hardest are going to often be those seniors that are living in their homes, children, outdoor workers. Households with no resources to protect themselves when wildfires hit, and because their homes are too leaky, that smoke has a pathway to get into the house to cause respiratory issues. For organizations like EnerCity Collaborative, PCEF is more than just reducing emissions. It's about building resilient communities by creating career pathways, making homes healthier, lowering energy costs and ensuring that people most affected by climate change are a part of that solution. We need to be talking with the folks in the communities that are affected most to create the solutions that will work for those communities. How did you get involved with Kijani Collective, and what role do organizations like this play in these political fights? Metoyer: My role in Kijani Collective started back when there were folks that were meeting to address some of these issues. Specifically, we were professionals in our own industries and we came together because we kept seeing and experiencing the fact that we were the only Black person in the room when policy was being discussed and decisions were being made. We felt it was important for us to come together to make sure that the information that was being shared was shared amongst the Black community, and so that's really how it got started. I serve on the steering committee to help guide the mission and programs, and give input there. PCEF has been in the news. The ballot initiative to redirect PCEF funds to public safety failed to get enough votes to qualify. PCEF funds will likely be looked at for Moda renovations. PCEF has had an unexpected surplus so why not target that surplus for these other things? Metoyer: Again, this funding was intended to help underrepresented and frontline communities with building climate resilience in their communities. From our perspective at EnerCity Collaborative, the Portland Clean Energy Fund is making this difference because every person that we train represents more than a workforce statistic. There's someone who can help make homes healthier during wildfire smoke events. We're training people to help improve the indoor air quality for homes where people might have mold issues, moisture issues that make folks sick, especially younger children that might have asthmatic issues. We're helping people lower their utility bills. We're helping to strengthen neighborhood resilience. To me, that's the return on investment that the Portland Clean Energy Fund was designed to create. I really see this as a way for the communities that the Portland Clean Energy Fund was intended to serve to help them build generational wealth. In essence, you don't have to sell grandma's house. It's helping people stay in that home because contractors are adding insulation, air sealing the home, upgrading the furnaces, upgrading the water heaters. When we invest in the people, like the Portland Clean Energy Fund has done, we're investing in Portland's ability to respond to climate changes together. EnerCity Collaborative is a PCEF grantee. Can you talk specifically about what the grant was for and what the work looks like? Metoyer: To take a step back, EnerCity Collaborative, we are a local nonprofit, and our mission is to ensure the financial, environmental and health benefits of a clean energy economy are fully realized in Black, Indigenous, people of color, frontline and underserved communities. We go about that in three different ways. We really focus on new workers that are entering in the trades to help them understand the pathway into a clean energy sector. So, helping those folks who want to get into construction understand there are very specific roles, like residential energy auditor, weatherization technician and HVAC technician that are really needed to help the residential construction industry. By the year 2031, roughly 40% of the construction industry will retire. (Note: This statistic comes from the National Center for Construction Education and Research). It means that we have a lot of people retiring and going out of the industry, but it also represents this massive opportunity for new folks to get into the industry and move up the ladder quickly in the trades. The second group that we try to focus on is minority contractors, helping them understand how to build a home performance business that can be successful. A lot of the time, energy efficiency programs have an added administrative burden. There's different insurance and bonding. It's also about treating the house as a system. It's about do no harm. Do no harm to the building, do no harm to the occupants of that building and do no harm to themselves in the process when they're retrofitting those buildings. Then the last group is homeowners. We do this by working with community-based organizations to help them either train their staff or go to homeownership fairs, to help homeowners understand this intersection between energy efficiency and healthy homes. Regarding the grants that we've received, we are a Building Performance Institute test center. This is a nationally recognized certification that we offer our students. It is also a certification that the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund has required contractors to have in order to do retrofit work for the programs. Our training is really teaching contractors how to speak with homeowners about the upgrades, assess a home on what can make it more energy efficient, what could make it healthier, how to improve indoor air quality, how to improve comfort, durability of the home, and then how to create a scope of work to then be able to do that work in the program. We are the only Building Performance Institute test center led by and for people of color in the Pacific Northwest. The grant that we've received is to deliver this BPI training to folks that want to get in the industry and do work in the Portland Clean Energy Fund. PCEF was approved in 2018. Since then, how has the extent to which climate change has affected Portlanders, specifically Black, brown, Indigenous Portlanders worsened? Metoyer: It's becoming more prevalent with wildfire smoke. It's becoming more prevalent with more frequent heat domes. You know, we've also seen it in the winter months, when power lines froze up when we had a pretty big ice and windstorm two years ago. Power lines were down. There were a lot of trees that fell on homes. And so people were without power. During these times when people are out of power, especially those that might need to have their medicine refrigerated or be on oxygen, that really affects people. When I first moved here over 20 years ago the climate in Portland was so moderate that you didn't need air conditioning. That is changing. There are resources that need to be amped up to help people mitigate those climate negatives, if you will. Right now, Kijani Collective is distributing a climate resilience survey. What would you say to Black and brown people who might be a little survey-weary in this moment? Metoyer: I completely feel that. There have been a lot of surveys and a lot of reports based on information and data gathered, but it usually stops there. With Kijani what we're doing is not taking a token interest in the community, this is grassroots: for us, by us. The survey Kijani Collective has out now, is about centering Black and brown Portlanders' experience. We want to understand how Portland's Black community experiences climate-related events like extreme heat, winter storms and wildfire smoke, and whether people have what they need to stay safe. The information that we're gathering will help guide future investments and ensure that climate solutions are shaped by the voices and experiences of the community that we are part of.