Please join us in writing to the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) to support the Clean Air Protection Program and Clean Air Surcharge and center environmental justice and community leadership. The Portland’s BPS has released a draft proposal for the creation of a Clean Air Protection Program for the city. The program would be funded by a Clean Air Surcharge on Portland’s largest stationary sources of air pollution, generating roughly $2 million a year. Funds would be reinvested in pollution reduction programs to:
- Improve local air quality
- Decrease the public health impacts from exposure to local air pollution
- Increase community education about those impacts
- Support community-based solutions such as good neighbor agreements
This program would also support a Clean Air Grant Fund to assist communities and businesses with measures to reduce emissions of or exposure to air toxics. An advisory committee composed of community members and air quality experts from Portland would work with the program staff to develop measures to reduce exposure to air pollution from many sources, focusing on the communities and geographic areas of the city most impacted by air pollution.
The most significant air toxics concerns in Oregon are in Multnomah County and Portland. Communities of color and low-income communities in our region face the greatest health impacts from these toxics, including respiratory diseases, cardiovascular disease, developmental impacts and nerve damage. The City of Portland currently does not have an air quality program nor the resources to hire experts to address air toxics and their impacts on our communities.
Our partners at 350 PDX have made it easy to submit public comments with a public comment guide that includes a sample comment template and suggested talking points.
We urge you to submit written comments by noon on Friday, November 19th to demand that BPS protects our clean air and centers environmental justice concerns and community leadership as the proposal develops. You can submit comments through one of two ways:
- On the Map App: portlandmaps.com/bps/clean-air (Click the "Testify" button and fill in your information and comments.)
- By US postal mail: City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability Clean Air, Healthy Climate Proposal public comment Vanport, 1810 SW 5th Avenue, Suite 710 Portland, OR 97201