Clean Energy Fund update (finally) gives transportation its due

Bike buses funded by PCEF? Why not! (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)“I think Coach Balto’s bike bus is the coolest thing on the planet. We should be putting that in every public school in the City of Portland. That’s what I call decarbonization.”– Jo Ann Hardesty, Portland city commissionerIt’s not news that driving and transportation in general emits more fossil fuels than any other sector across the city, state and country. But local efforts to curb climate change have largely overlooked this fact. One such program is the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF). Created via a 2018 ballot measure and funded by a tax the city collects from large retailers, PCEF has left transportation projects on the side of the road.But that is likely to change as of Wednesday’s Portland City Council meeting.Council unanimously agreed to amend the PCEF code to “better align with and…

Read more…