Portland City Council Approves Ordinances to Write Portland Clean Energy Fund into City Code

Portland City Council voted last week to approve an ordinance to write the Portland Clean Energy Fund into city code and authorize four new program staff positions to oversee and support the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund.

They also approved a small handful of amendments proposed by the City Revenue Division. The pair of ordinances writes Measure 26-201, which was approved by 65 percent of Portland voters Nov. 6, into City Code with a small handful of housekeeping amendments proposed by the City Revenue division that were supported by the coalition that led the Portland Clean Energy Fund campaign. The city invited testimony from community leaders and took comments from members of the public who expressed their support of a robust implementation faithful to the will of the over 200,000 voters who approved the measure.

Leaders in the Portland Clean Energy Fund coalition identified next steps for the implementation of the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund, including but not limited to recruiting a diverse and representative grant committee to be appointed by City Commissioners, hiring program staff to be housed at the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, and building capacity among community organizations to prepare them to submit competitive proposals to the fund.

More information may be found at the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability website and at the website from the Portland Clean Energy Initiative campaign.