Kimberly Tucker — Candidate for City Council, District 3
Endorsed 350PDX CJ platform? Yes
Will you support PCEF? Yes
Candidate statement:
In terms of policies relating to sustainable energy practices, I believe that the most important part is continuing to fully fund PCEF with the stipulation that it has a sub-budget breakdown of each part of the program’s costs and the past, current, and expected returns, ensuring that if mid-year rebudgeting were to occur it would be far less likely to affect the fund and receive more support across the council as a whole. Portland is a city that has shown it wants to be at the forefront of the environmental justice movement, and PCEF is one of the leading ways we can get there given that the proper structural pieces to protect the core mission are also present. This is in the same vein that a fully-fledged plan created by industry experts for the city’s new approach to climate governance is needed as is more legislature supporting clean, renewable, and sustainable energy and infrastructure. Being a forerunner in this regard requires experienced professionals at the helm. Programs like the above also directly help our long-term economy by investing in Portlanders who will in turn be more likely to put that investment back into the city. Presently, I also believe that our city needs to ensure we evaluate possible outcomes that proposed changes to our transportation industry may have on current economic and environmental sustainability goals. We additionally need to focus on the Portland Harbor clean-up, especially given that the intensity of the toxic algae in the Willamette River this year has led to cancellations of multiple events. Lastly, with these negative impacts of Ross Island Sand and Gravel still present decades later, it is important that we protect our city from this in the future by having stricter restrictions in place and enforcing them for all businesses operating in the CEI hub. Nature is important to the PNW, and we all deserve to have trees to shade our streets and rivers in which to swim.
