Inside Look: Portland Clean Energy Fund Signed into City Codes

Hello, friends.

My name is Marie Schlagel and I work within the Sierra Club as their Program Coordinator. I recently came into this position as a Quaker Voluntary Service Fellow, a program designed for young adults to dedicate a year of service while living in an intentional community. QVS marks my third year of service. Previously, I was part of AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps and City Year in Kansas City. In the first, I learned about what it’s like to dedicate oneself to a cause greater than oneself. In the second, however...I learned firsthand how systems within our country were designed to let some people succeed and then intentionally fail others.

Having worked within one broken system, I realized how necessary it is to change it. To ignite that change would take more than anything I could ever do in my lifetime. It requires the force and dedication of many more than me - people who are smarter, more creative, more charismatic, and who have better access to more resources. It needs a lot of learning and even more unlearning. If we want this world to be better, we all need to take an active role in changing.

All of this to say: I will post on our blog to share my observances of how our government runs on all levels, how to best advocate for the change we want to see, and share my personal reflections with you.

This post marks my fourth week with the Oregon Sierra Club and already, I have been to the state capitol three times and Portland City Hall once. In this time, I I have also witnessed the amazing work this organization does and not just within the tireless work staff put in every day: I see it in the dedicated members and supporters, the constant action amongst partners and allies, and in the power which grassroots organizing has. I am lucky to be here, especially in a time where I can witness their hard work’s amazing end result.

On Feb. 21., the Portland Clean Energy Fund was signed into city codes.

Immediately upon entering the City Hall council chambers, it was different - different from any public hearing in Salem, different from the quiet chambers of the State Senate and House, different from the suits and high heels tapping against the mausoleum-like marble floors in the capitol building. There were no lobbyists in knee-length trench coats or overly formal readings echoing through a largely empty chamber. No, this was something entirely different from the state capitol earlier in the week when I visited.

The room pulsed with energy before the hearing started, the air almost alive with it. From bottom floor to balconies, it was packed with people from every group in the coalition. There were middle-aged people in sweatshirts, old men in worn but nicely pressed jeans, activists in T-shirts, a person with a black hoodie that proudly read “Black Portland” with a rose replacing the “a” in Black, doctors, parents, teachers, affordable housing advocates, people you’d pass by on the street. The one common thing that tied everyone together: green. Everyone wore green. From one look in the room, I could immediately tell that this law was by and for all the people in Portland because I felt as though I could see someone from every community of this beautiful city sitting next to me as we all watched the hearing proceedings. For a measure that passed into law by over 65%, that felt just about right.

Within minutes of the hearing, people from group of the coalition came forward to testify. I heard stories of strength and resistance, people’s own experiences in pending climate change as they survived storms and wildfires, and how lives may be changed with job training and opening employment opportunities in the clean energy sector.

Support amongst the public was overwhelming but warnings persisted: to be on the watch for those who wish to sabotage the Portland Clean Energy Fund’s design and intent.

“There is no way we are going to let it [the Portland Clean Energy Fund] get weakened. If anything, we are going to make it stronger,” Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty asserted.

Elected in 2018 on the same night as the Portland Clean Energy Fund (then Measure 26-201) passed, Commissioner Hardesty was one of the original thinkers and advocates for it. She continued to add that she would watch the progress of the Fund “like a hawk”. If her own history within the initial stages or more recent verbal assurances weren’t convincing enough, Commissioner Hardesty’s nonverbal responses during the public testimonies should be. The commissioner gave silent but visible snaps of approval and occasionally waved her hands to show her support.

Commissioner Hardesty’s open-hearted support and approval was mirrored throughout the room. In the end, each of the City Commissioners and then Mayor Wheeler finalized the next steps in implementing the Portland Clean Energy Fund. Then we saw it finally - officially - passed. The room burst into applause.

Afterward, I snuck my way into a photo with some folks who did most of the work. As the new kid on the block, my only contributions to the campaign while it ran was the occasional phone bank volunteer shift, sharing some canvassing events on Facebook, and then actually voting. But it’s every piece that counts, right? However, being present in that room changed me in the best and worst way.

It will be two years before funds will pay for new infrastructure or any job training. A lot happens in two years. I myself have faith in the Clean Energy Fund but I remain hyper aware that much more is left to be done outside of Portland. With this in mind, combined with the memory of that afternoon in City Hall, I know that I will do more in the next two years than in my last twenty-three.