Street roots., October 27, 2017, Page 4, Image 4

Commentary
Page 4
Street Roots • Oct. 27-Nov. 2, 2017
A climate-change response rooted in justice
A Portland coalition will introduce a proposal to fu n d local and equitable investments in
renewable energy and efficiency by imposing a tax on large corporations
BY STEPHEN QUIRKE
the maximum per-business tax at $1 million.
Disagreement over these details fractured
n the coming weeks, a diverse coalition of support for the policy among city
commissioners, leading the coalition to opt
grassroots organizations will put forward
for a ballot initiative.
a unique ballot measure to help Portland
“The mayor is for, obviously, a transition
respond to global climate change.
to renewable energy, and one that is shared
Called the Portland Just Energy
equitably,” said Michael Cox, spokesperson
Transition, the measure would add a 1
for Mayor Ted Wheeler. “He is not a fan of a
percent revenue tax on large retail outlets
Measure 97-style gross receipts tax, and he’ll
operating in the city and use those funds to
have to see the final language of the initiative
invest in environmental justice
before he takes a position on it.”
projects in areas like food
" B lin k about the
If passed next year, the measure will
Sm arts^ the Starbacks^ production, neighborhood-scale
create a local fund for environmental justice
solar and wind energy, energy
the b ig corporate fo lk s
projects at a scale that is apparently
efficiency and weatherization
unprecedented anywhere in the country.
who h a w been w r y
assistance.
The roughly $35 million to $51 million per
o ffe c tlw at p a yin g no
The NAACP’s Portland
year that the initiative would produce, as
branch, Native American Youth
taxes, at p a yin g si®
projected by the Bureau of Revenue, would
in fra s tru c tu re fees, b u t and Family Center, the Asian
be overseen by a city committee modeled
Pacific American Network of
con tin u e to co n trib u te
after the Portland Children’s Levy - an
Oregon, Portland 350 and Verde
initiative that generates tax revenue for
to clim a te w a rm in g ,
all back the measure.
children’s programs - and distributed on a
JO A M K H A e O E S T Y ,
JoAnn Hardesty, the local
project-by-project basis. Coalition members
P R E S ID E N T O F T H E N A A C P 'S
NAACP president and a
PO RTLA N D BRA N CH
say the aim of these projects is to lower
candidate for City Council, said
Portland’s contributions to climate-altering
the intention is to create a
pollution, build up locally-owned renewable
response to climate change that’s rooted in
energy and invest in economic development
fairness. Hardesty said the measure would
for low-income communities and
tax only the largest of Portland’s box stores,
communities of color.
those with global retail sales of $1 billion or
“Most retailers have the longest supply
more and Portland revenue of at least
trains and don’t account for greenhouse
$500,000 per year.
gases in the production and distribution of
“Think about the Kmarts, the Starbucks,
their products,” said Lenny Dee, a volunteer
the big corporate folks who have been very
for Portland Just Energy Transition, or PJET.
effective at paying no taxes, at paying no
“For every dollar spent at a national retail
infrastructure fees, but continue to contribute store, 58 cents gets re-circulated back into
to climate warming,” Hardesty said.
the community as opposed to 73 cents of
An analysis in June by the city’s Bureau of
every dollar spent at a locally owned store.
Revenue supports Hardesty’s claim that the
Of the approximately 125 companies
tax’s impact on businesses would be narrow.
affected, 45 have overseas tax havens, some
Using available data, it estimated it would be
with as many as 40 or 50 of these havens.”
levied on just 122 companies, with as many
The measure is set to be filed by the end
as 732 more companies potentially liable,
of November and slated for a vote on the
depending on their annual sales in Portland.
November 2018 ballot. If it is passed,
The bureau recommended broadening the
citywide transition projects could begin as
tax to include more businesses and capping
early as 2020.
S T A F F W R IT E R
I
The initiative arrives at a unique moment
in the evolution of climate politics - during a
swing toward local politics brought on by the
Trump administration and at a time when
strictly technical climate proposals are
receiving heavy criticism.
After President Donald Trump announced
on June 1 that the U.S. would pull out of the
Paris climate accord, an avalanche of
denunciations was released around the
country. The same day, 361 mayors
announced they would uphold the accord
themselves by working to reduce their own
cities’ greenhouse gas pollution. Portland
and Multnomah County declared they would
work together to transition the entire local
energy grid to 100 percent renewables for all
electricity by 2035 and 100 percent
renewable energy for all purposes including
transportation by 2050.
Later that month, the bipartisan U.S.
Conference of Mayors announced its support
for cities across the country adopting the
same goal - 100 percent of renewable
electricity by 2035. The organization, which
represents mayors from 1,481 U.S. cities,
also called for the renewal of the Energy
Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant
Program, a federal program that provided
$2.7 billion to local, county and tribal
governments to address climate change.
According to the Sierra Club, if the cities
represented by the mayors organization all
formally adopted the 100 percent goal, they
would replace 422 gigawatts of fossil fuel
electricity with renewables - or 34 percent
of all U.S. electricity consumed in 2016. So
far, 41 cities have formally adopted this goal
and 160 mayors have a signed a separate
statement pledging to get their cities to 100
percent renewable energy.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu
summed up the strategy of the U.S.
Conference of Mayors, saying that if the
federal government refused to take action, a
See JUST TRANSITION, page 5
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