Kellie Torres — Candidate for City Council, District 3
Endorsed 350PDX CJ platform? Yes
Will you support PCEF? Yes
Candidate statement:
For more than 20 years, I have worked in Portland building partnerships that strengthen our parks, community programs, and natural areas. That work has shaped how I think about climate change. This isn’t separate from the everyday things people expect their city to get right. It is clean air, shade when temperatures climb, healthy parks and trees, affordable energy, and infrastructure ready for what we know is coming.
We also know the impacts aren’t felt equally. Low-income Portlanders, communities of color, seniors, renters, and people experiencing homelessness are often hit hardest by extreme heat, wildfire smoke, pollution, and rising energy costs. Where we make climate investments matters, and the people most affected should have a real voice in those decisions.
I will continue to advocate for Portland’s parks, trails, trees, natural areas, and public spaces. Every Portlander should have access to shade, clean air, healthy natural areas, and safe places to gather. We also need the resources and plans to maintain what we build.
I support the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund and its focus on community-driven climate action and environmental justice. Portlanders should also expect transparency about what those investments accomplish. These dollars should lower energy costs, prepare people for extreme weather, improve homes and buildings, and make neighborhoods healthier and more resilient.
Portlanders also need safe, realistic transportation choices. Walking, biking, and reliable public transit should be easier and safer, reducing emissions while helping families get to work, school, childcare, and other necessities affordably.
I believe it is time to reclaim the Willamette River as Portland’s front yard through greater public access, habitat restoration, recreation, and responsible stewardship. That includes addressing the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub. Its seismic and environmental risks are real, and Portland should not expand its dependence on fossil-fuel infrastructure in one of our city’s most vulnerable areas. We need stronger protections across the CEI Hub and a long-term strategy for reducing that risk.
Zenith is part of that conversation, but it isn’t the whole conversation. I expect Zenith and any future owner to meet existing commitments, including ending crude-oil handling by 2027, reducing emissions, and meeting environmental, land-use, and safety requirements. I would not support walking those commitments backward or expanding fossil-fuel infrastructure at the site.
City Council also has to be disciplined about its authority. If we want stronger CEI Hub rules, we should adopt and defend them, and hold companies accountable when they violate them. But permitting and franchise decisions must be based on the law, the facts, and the City’s actual authority. Public trust isn’t built by deciding the outcome first and finding the legal justification afterward.
Portland has ambitious climate goals. I will focus on turning them into results through better coordination, measurable progress, transparent reporting, and partnerships with government, labor, businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations that create good jobs and prepare Portlanders to build and maintain a more sustainable, resilient city.
We can be serious about climate change and serious about good government at the same time. We have to be.
