PCEF Platform

Created in collaboration with Friends of PCEF,

part of the 350PDX Climate Justice Platform 2024

Context

The Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF), is an innovative, crucial climate program focused on mitigating climate change, environmental inequity, and racism in order to reach Portland’s climate goals. PCEF so far has invested millions into projects such as community solar projects, urban farms and gardens, climate resilience, energy efficiency, installation of cooling units, planting and maintaining street trees, e-bikes, supporting climate-safe schools, and many more. PCEF is a fund for the Portland community. Support for the program and its goals are essential in the fight against climate change.

The fund was established in 2018 on the ballot by nearly two-thirds of voters to place a 1% surcharge on massive corporations with over $1 billion in annual sales and over $500,000 in Portland sales, exempting basic groceries, health care and medicine, and utilities. The purpose of PCEF is clear: “To invest in climate action projects that support environmental justice and social, economic, and environmental benefits for all Portlanders.” The passage of this landmark initiative marked a turning point. For the first time, Portland has real capacity to invest in workforce and infrastructure to create a thriving green economy and more resilient neighborhoods and communities.

In 2023, dozens of organizations and thousands of community members firmly supported PCEF’s five-year Climate Investment Plan, which Portland City Council unanimously approved. The plan sets a framework for allocating $750 million in 16 strategic program areas, including transportation decarbonization and climate friendly schools. The plan was developed through extensive research and input from residents, businesses, technical experts, government partners, and community organizations.

PCEF is not just a funding mechanism; it is a first-of-its-kind community-led force with a clearly stated purpose that provides funding for the rapid transition to a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient city. One study commissioned by the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability estimates it will take upwards of $49 billion to make Portland climate-resilient (“Portland Clean Energy Fund: Market Study Summary”). PCEF is an essential part of that strategy, but it takes time to ramp up and create systems and safeguards for spending this additional revenue in a responsible manner that is accountable to the community. This is work the PCEF Committee has just recently completed and we look forward to seeing the community-driven ideas for how to best spend this additional revenue within our community.

Actions

  1. No reduction of the clean energy surcharge or diversion of PCEF revenue away from climate and environmental justice projects with community benefits. Even though PCEF revenue has far exceeded projections, the sum is still not nearly enough to address climate infrastructure projects needed for a just transition and equitable climate change adaptation in Portland.
  2. No future diversions of interest or funds from PCEF to support the City’s general fund. The City should find funding for its regular budget through other revenue streams.
  3. Decisions about how to spend the Portland Clean Energy Fund must be made by the communities who are on the front lines of climate change and social inequities in Portland. That includes people of color, low-income communities, working class people, people living with a disability, and many more. Our communities banded together because we knew that business-as-usual would mean we would be left especially vulnerable to climate change and might never benefit from rooftop solar, energy efficiency, green jobs, union apprenticeships, shade trees, accessible and clean transportation, and community gardens. It is precisely our communities’ unique experiences that give us the expertise and wisdom needed to steer PCEF to fulfilling its promise to voters. The PCEF Grantmaking Committee is an essential conduit through which frontline communities’ guidance and input should be heard on strategic directions and specific funding decisions.
  4. Prioritize investing PCEF funds into building capacity and technical assistance for community-based organizations to be able to take on larger grant projects over time. Capacity-building grants help build up to large climate projects that need a wide range of specialized, professional support and planning. PCEF is intended in part to build up and support community-based organizations, who are the trusted partners for work within frontline communities. To get to the point of a large shovel-ready project requires time, labor, expertise, and funding. PCEF capacity-building grants help build the pipeline to physical projects.
  5. “Priority communities” as defined by the PCEF program should not only be the beneficiaries of PCEF-funded projects, but should also be the workers, project planners, designers, and decision-makers of PCEF-funded projects. PCEF has always been about more than just creating money for climate justice, but also supporting the growth of community leaders who are building their own futures.
  6. Programs such as “Cooling Portland” and Comprehensive E-Bike Access and Support should continue to be made available to a wide range of Portlanders through effective public outreach, advertising, and marketing. It is essential for qualifying Portlanders to have as much information about and access to PCEF programs as possible in order to maximize the reach and impacts of PCEF across the city.

Important Stakeholders

Friends of PCEF: This group was started by organizations from the 2018 PCEF ballot measure campaign who have remained engaged in faithfully implementing PCEF (Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund). We are a wide-reaching coalition of communities of many different backgrounds ranging from Black, Indigenous, Latine, Asian, Pacific Islander, and many other people of color environmental justice leaders as well as long-standing environmental and climate organizations. We sought to create and pass the PCEF measure to fulfill the goals of Portland’s climate action plan while ensuring that our communities receive our fair share of the co-benefits of climate action. See sign-on letter from Friends of PCEF and others from May 2024.

Case Studies

Carrington Fox, “Depave Program Swaps Concrete and Asphalt for Green Space,” nFocus, August 15, 2024, https://www.nfocusmagazine.com/people-places/depave-program-swaps-concrete-and-asphalt-for-green-space/article_0d6ad1cc-518e-11ef-9589-8f2387a36441.html.

Grantee Spotlight Videos, PCEF YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/@portlandcleanenergyfund5282.

“Our Community’s Climate Justice Work,” PCEF Committee, City of Portland website, https://www.portland.gov/bps/cleanenergy/our-communitys-work.

Climate Friendly Public Schools, Portland Public Schools, https://www.pps.net/studentclimateprojects.

Citations

7.07.020 PCEF Policy and Purpose, City Code, City of Portland website, ​​https://www.portland.gov/code/7/07#toc–7-07-020-policy-and-purpose-.

May 2024 sign-on letter to City Council, Friends of PCEF and other concerned organizations, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wOnoi1MddB0Tn9JeMgtvIPlfCfixYImhrp2t7D0ha5A/edit?usp=sharing

“Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF),” City of Portland website, https://www.portland.gov/bps/cleanenergy.

“Portland Clean Energy Fund: Market Study Summary,” June 2023, Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, City of Portland, https://www.portland.gov/bps/cleanenergy/grant-committee/documents/pcef-market-study/download.

Monica Samayoa, “Portland Clean Energy Fund to invest $92 million in community-led grants,” Oregon Public Broadcasting, September 11, 2024, https://www.opb.org/article/2024/09/11/portland-clean-energy-fund-invest-92-million-community-grants/.

“The Climate Investment Plan,” PCEF Committee, City of Portland website, https://www.portland.gov/bps/cleanenergy/climate-investment/climate-investment-plan.

Endorsed by:

Endorsed full Climate Justice Platform:

Laura Streib (D2)
Jonathan Tasini (D2)
Brian Conley (D3)
Chad Lykins (D4)
Moses Ross (D4)
Sarah Silkie (D4)
Andra Vltavín (D4)

Endorsed this section:

Stanley Penkin (D4)