Clean Energy Fund spending, Willamette River love, and Zenith faces some heat. This was the biggest Portland environment news in 2024. by Taylor Griggs The Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund's (PCEF) budget is bigger than expected. This year was about figuring out how to spend it.  Late last year, updated financial forecasts showed that Portland's clean energy fund—which is fueled by a 1 percent tax on big business sales in Portland—would have more money to spend on carbon-reduction projects than leaders previously thought. After approving a $750 million Climate Investment Plan in 2023, PCEF discovered it actually had about $1.2 billion to spend over the next five years—and that number has since gone up even more.  PCEF leaders were enthusiastic about the unexpected funds, and said there were plenty of ways they could spend it to advance the program's mission to increase climate resiliency and lower carbon emissions, with investments specifically targeted for low-income communities and communities of color. But Commissioner Carmen Rubio—at the time in charge of the bureau overseeing PCEF—got pushback for some of her suggestions to allocate money from the fund to unrelated city programs, like Portland Street Response. People who felt strongly about PCEF's climate justice mission didn't want Rubio using the program as a slush fund for her own political gain (she was running for mayor at the time). Slush fund allegations aside, PCEF made some pretty hefty investments in carbon-reduction projects this year. In September, the program allocated $92 million to nonprofit-led climate projects around the city. The grants will fund energy efficiency upgrades in low-income housing complexes, an urban forestry internship program, and a plan to get more kids to walk to school, among other projects. In December, PCEF invested $300 million in grants for large-scale projects, a good deal of which will go to the city's own bureaus. Stay tuned for more about PCEF in 2025, as the program will likely be the subject of attention (and contention?) as Portland's government changes hands.  Gas-powered leaf blowers are out.  Photo: Getty/Lucentius Mercury graphic Believe it or not, those loud, annoying machines are responsible for millions of tons of carbon dioxide each year, and contribute to poor air quality locally. E-leaf blowers are the future, as the gas-powered version will be phased out in Portland starting in 2026, with a full ban in place by 2028. (Read the Mercury's article on the topic to see some passionate public comments for and against the ban. People feel very strongly about this!) NW Natural faces lawsuits for alleged greenwashing.  In October, Multnomah County added NW Natural—Oregon's largest gas utility operation—to its lawsuit against Big Oil companies. Just days later, two NW Natural customers filed a class action suit against the company for a greenwashing "carbon offsets" program. Both lawsuits argue the company has knowingly disenfranchised customers and contributed to the climate crisis.  Warnings, Fines, and New Requirements for Zenith Energy  Zenith was in the news a lot in 2024. Here's what you need to know going into the new year. Early this year, Zenith Energy—the Texas-based oil transport and storage company with a terminal in Northwest Portland—received a slap on the wrist from the City Auditor's Office for violating lobbying code. While the company was trying to get its land use permit from the city back in 2022, Zenith representatives took Portland Commissioners Carmen Rubio and Dan Ryan on site tours and facilitated meetings with them in order to "gain good will and advance approval of its permit." While the auditor's report only focused on what the company did wrong, environmental advocates say Rubio and Ryan should've been held accountable, too.  More recently, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued new requirements of Zenith after finding some red flags at an unannounced company site visit. The DEQ was working on issuing Zenith a new air quality permit, which it needs to be in compliance with the city's land use permit and continue operating into the future. But, because the company made unsanctioned expansions to its operations, it will now need to seek a new land use permit from the city. This will be one of the first issues the new Portland City Council deals with when they meet in January—unless Zenith manages to subvert elected officials and go the administrative route, which some advocates are concerned about. The DEQ also fined Zenith $372,600.  The Willamette River got some love. A scene from a Willamette River party in June. (Photo: Taylor Griggs) It's no longer en vogue (or, more importantly, accurate) to trash-talk our beloved Willamette River. Portland's section of the river is (mostly) safe to swim in now, and there's room for optimism about its future.  Willie Levinson, who runs the organization Human Access Project and aims to spread the good word about the Willamette River, is largely responsible for the river renaissance. I call it a "renaissance" because, as I learned from Levinson and Portland historian Doug Decker, the river used to be the place to be in Portland. That ended in the mid-1920s, when city decided to route sewage into the Willamette, and it became the site of heavy industrialization.  The following quote about the demise of the Willamette and its floating pools and club houses (one was called Windemuth) is one of the best things I've ever read. It's from an Oregon Journal article published August 5, 1924.  “The great, the near great and the great unwashed have spent many a pleasant hour in the soft winds and the cool waters at Windemuth on hot summer afternoons…It was a wonderful recreational place, and the sentiment that clung around it will leave a touch of regret in hundreds,” the article reads. “Isn't man improvident, isn't he short-sighted, isn't he destructive, in turning this river wonder that God hath wrought, into a colossal sewer to carry to the sea material worth millions for keeping soil in its original fertility?” The river is clean of sewage now, but climate change and the shallow waters of the Ross Island Lagoon have made toxic green algae blooms more common. A new DEQ mandate will require Ross Island Sand & Gravel—the company that mined the bottom of the river for 75 years, changing its habitat—to restore and reclaim the site, and monitor and manage the algae blooms.  Portlanders 💚 Trees  Trees are always a mainstay in Portland's environmental and climate news, and 2024 was no different. Some highlights: The city is updating its Urban Forest Management plan for the first time in 20 years, giving the public and the new City Council an opportunity to weigh in on the strategy for maintaining Portland's tree canopy. In 2024, the benefits of trees were clearer than ever. They provide cooling benefits during increasingly hot summers, but Portland's tree canopy has declined in recent years. This plan should be in effect sometime in 2025.  One thing that will probably come up in conversations about Portland's tree management plan? "Shade equity," a term meant to illustrate the disparities in tree canopy coverage across the city. For the most part, people who live in richer, whiter neighborhoods benefit from having more trees nearby, while Portlanders in parts of the city that have historically been poorer and more racially diverse may be surrounded by more concrete than shade. These inequities are becoming more apparent as summers get hotter. Advocates from groups like 350 PDX, which held its third annual Urban Shade Equity Ride in July, are drawing attention to this problem.  Portland tree lovers fought for forests outside city limits, too. Forest conservationists in Oregon used a variety of tactics, from rallies to tree-sits, to fight against old growth logging in 2024.  Trees in Portland. (Photo: Taylor Griggs)