Portland leaders heralded an environmental milestone Wednesday when the city became the first in the nation to pledge to phase out the sale of petroleum diesel.
But the measure — which will take effect in 2024 and require that petroleum diesel for sale in Portland be blended with renewable fuels at increasingly higher increments, until 99% of it is phased out in 2030 — has drawn unlikely critics.
Environmental groups are concerned that the city’s aggressive action to reduce carbon emissions from medium and heavy trucks does not adequately consider that the production, storage and transportation of renewable fuels comes with the same risks inherent to moving and storing conventional diesel. The list of possible hazards includes catastrophic spills, fires, water and air pollution, noise and smells. The potential for a big earthquake in Oregon also spells uncertainty.
The measure, passed unanimously by the Portland City Council, is the first major step to reduce carbon emissions by 50% under the city’s recently adopted climate emergency plan. It aims to improve Portland’s air quality, especially in lower income neighborhoods most impacted by cancer-causing diesel fumes.
“It’s a laudable goal to reduce the pollution that comes from diesel, and I don’t want to downplay what the city is trying to accomplish here,” said Dan Serres, conservation director with Columbia Riverkeeper, an environmental group focused on protecting the Columbia River. “But Portland must ensure this policy is not propping up poorly sited, poorly conceived biofuel production facilities.”
Columbia Riverkeeper is one of a half dozen environmental organizations that submitted a letter to the Portland City Council outlining concerns over the biofuel ordinance.
The Breach Collective, 350PDX, Columbia Riverkeeper, Northwest Environmental Defense Center and Portland Audubon wrote that the city lacks safeguards and oversight of existing fossil fuel corporations and other companies that are racing to build new biofuel facilities or convert existing fossil fuel infrastructure.
“We advocated for additional measures to ensure community oversight of major polluters and protections for communities living near large liquid fuel storage tanks, but these recommendations were ignored by city staff and City Council,” said Nick Caleb, an attorney with the Breach Collective, a Eugene-based climate justice advocacy organization.
The City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, which prepared the ordinance, declined to comment Thursday on the specific environmental impacts of biofuel production, storage, and transportation. Spokeswoman Magan Reed said the city is proud of its work on limiting Portland’s reliance on fossil fuels such as diesel.
“We understand that policy creates ripple effects in systems,” Reed wrote via email. “We also understand that, while we are pursuing a future with no reliance on traditional fossil fuels, it’s unrealistic to assume a switch can be flipped to make that happen overnight.”
The potential for accidents and pollution from biofuel facilities and transport, whether in Portland or outside the city, is significant, environmentalists said.
“Biofuels are still fuels that perpetuate risks to the already contaminated Willamette River,” said Cassie Cohen, executive director of the Portland Harbor Community Coalition.
Trains transporting biofuels could spill fuel into the Willamette or Columbia rivers, said Cohen, contaminating the environment and putting the local community at risk. One such accident occurred in 2016 when a train hauling several million gallons of crude oil derailed and caught on fire near the town of Mosier, spilling oil into the Columbia.
In this June 3, 2016 image, from video provided by KGW-TV, smoke billows from a Union Pacific oil train that derailed near Mosier, Ore. in the scenic Columbia River Gorge.
Cohen’s grassroots coalition has pushed for the cleanup of the Portland Harbor superfund site – an 11-mile industrial stretch of the Willamette River – through representation of disproportionately impacted communities. But the site could be further contaminated by Zenith Energy, a fossil fuel corporation located at the site which recently received a controversial stamp of approval from the city for five more years of oil storage and transfer after promising it would transform into a “renewable fuels” company.
The seismic risk of biofuel facilities is another worry, Cohen said, especially in light of Portland working to reduce that risk in its Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub where more than 90% of all of Oregon’s liquid fuel — gas and diesel — is stored. According to a recent study, a spill equivalent to the size of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill could happen at the Portland hub from aging tanks that sit on unstable soil if a major earthquake strikes. Biofuel stored in some of those tanks could be part of that risk.
This summer, the Portland City Council approved an ordinance that would limit the size and use of fossil fuel terminals in Portland as a way to lower earthquake risks – but it’s unclear whether it would also limit biofuel at these terminals.
And while the city of Portland hopes expanded access to biofuels will keep prices of biodiesel and renewable diesel low for residents and trucking companies under the new ordinance, environmental groups say the city should scrutinize where the fuels come from.
They point to the controversial $2 billion-plus renewable diesel refinery proposed by Houston-based NEXT Renewables on the Columbia River near Clatskanie. Conservation groups last week asked Oregon regulators to revoke state authorizations for the project after the state Land Use Board of Appeals revoked a permit for the facility’s 400-car rail yard.
Serres of Columbia Riverkeeper said the proposed refinery would be built on unstable soil behind dikes that are next to high value farmland and salmon habitat, in the midst of a sensitive river estuary. The risk of spills from the refinery or its rail yard – from accidents or caused by a major earthquake – would cause an environmental disaster, Serres said. The facility also could contaminate the water local farmers rely on.
In addition, the proposed refinery would use large volumes of fracked gas, a fossil fuel, and produce significant greenhouse gas emissions. NEXT Renewables could also use biofuel feedstocks with much higher carbon intensity – something Portland wants to avoid as part of its biofuel ordinance.
“It’s a cautionary tale for Portland,” Serres said. “We hope the city, in implementing this ordinance, looks closely at how some of these fuels are produced and whether their production, storage, and transport are actually consistent with the city’s goals.”
– Gosia Wozniacka; gwozniacka@oregonian.com; @gosiawozniacka
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