From late June through early July in 2021, the Pacific Northwest experienced an unprecedented and deadly heat wave which killed over 500 people across the region. As the state marks the fifth anniversary of this disaster, the climate crisis has continued to unfold and extreme heat events have become a regular occurrence in Oregon.
This summer is set to be another record breaking year for extreme heat and wildfire, with cities in Western Oregon already experiencing multiple days of extreme heat this June and meteorologists predicting a powerful el nino to bring more hot weather across the country. Studies have shown that extreme heat disproportionately impacts low income and non-white communities in the United States, and a recent study found that illnesses associated with extreme heat in the Pacific Northwest could double by 2040. Overwhelmingly, the people most at risk from extreme heat are those that cannot afford the upfront cost to purchase an air conditioner, and unhoused individuals who do not have access to climate-controlled spaces.
In the face of this new reality, climate organizing in the state has expanded beyond just reducing emissions to focus on building out resiliency measures to protect our communities from the already baked-in impacts of the climate crisis. In response to the 2021 heat dome, the Portland Clean Energy Fund, an initiative which taxes billion dollar corporations to pay for local climate investments, established the hugely successful Cooling Portland program which has provided over 25,000 high efficiency air conditioning units for free to Portland residents since its launch in 2022.
Eugene Clean Energy Fund
Looking at the success of the Portland program, Sierra Club is supporting the Eugene Clean Energy Fund Campaign to pass an initiative which could dramatically expand incentives for low income households to adopt air conditioning. The Eugene Clean Energy Fund (ECEF), which is closely modeled after the Portland Clean Energy Fund, would establish a 2% fee on billion dollar corporations operating in Eugene in order to fund climate and sustainability initiatives.
Organizers of the Eugene Clean Energy Fund hope that ECEF could do something similar in Eugene, dramatically expanding existing incentive programs at the state and local level, and offered by Eugene’s public electric utility Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB).
The campaign boasts key endorsements from local businesses, labor unions, and elected officials including the Lane, Coos, Curry, and Douglas Building Trades Council, Tacovore, the Heat Pump Store, Oregon State Senator James Manning Jr., former Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, Eugene Councilmember Matt Keating, EWEB Commissioner Tim Morris, and many others.
The ECEF campaign must submit 8,726 valid signatures by July 27 in order to qualify to be on the November ballot. The campaign has already collected 6,000 signatures, and intends to submit well over 10,000 by the deadline.