The Portland Public School Board voted March 1 to adopt the “PPS Climate Crisis Response, Climate Justice, and Sustainable Practices Policy.” Cascade Policy Institute’s President and CEO John A. Charles, Jr. warned the PPS Board in public comments that the plan would simply move greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from individual buildings to the electric grid.
The Board passed the policy anyway.
The first goal of the policy includes “[prohibiting] the installation of fossil fuel infrastructure in all new buildings, and phase out fossil fuel infrastructure in all existing buildings by 2050.” This is apparently aimed at eliminating natural gas as a fuel in PPS schools. While this may succeed in preventing gas consumption directly at the building level, there will be little impact on GHG emissions overall, because natural gas is a large part of the electrical supply system.
This reliance has actually increased since 2012, as shown below. In that year, coal and natural gas accounted for 45% of electrical generation for consumption in Oregon. In 2019, fossil fuel generation was up to 52%.
The rapid growth in natural gas consumption will continue in Oregon, due to the wind and solar mandates that Oregon legislators have placed on electric utilities. Wind and solar are intermittent resources that don’t generate electricity most of the time. Therefore, they have to be backed up by fast-acting fossil resources, typically natural gas generators. The more reliant the Northwest power grid becomes on intermittent sources, the more natural gas will be used.
John Charles’ full comments on the PPS “Climate Crisis Response, Climate Justice, and Sustainable Practices Policy” can be read here.
Founded in 1991, Cascade Policy Institute is Oregon’s free-market public policy research center. Cascade’s mission is to explore and promote public policy alternatives that foster individual liberty, personal responsibility, and economic opportunity. For more information, visit cascadepolicy.org
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