Isra-Mart srl : State rules push Metro to slash carbon emissions

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Metro must devise a plan to slash carbon emissions from passenger vehicles, under a proposed state regulation issued Friday.

The regional government would have to craft a variety of strategies to reduce per-person carbon emissions 21 percent below 2005 levels by 2035, under the rule to be considered by the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission.

Though that goal is daunting, there is no obligation, as of yet, for Metro to actually do anything to meet the goal other than prepare a plan.

The regulation stems from a 2009 state law that required the Portland area to lead the way in addressing greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles. It’s arguably one of the first in what’s likely to be a long series of requirements to address climate change on the local government level in Oregon. The regulation is designed to help meet the state’s adopted goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 75 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
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Metro hosted a brainstorming conference Friday, April 1, to gather public sentiment and ideas on how to meet the challenge, in the expectation that LCDC would issue the numeric goal the same day. Nearly 300 local government leaders, planners, environmental activists and others gathered at the Oregon Convention Center in what was billed as a Climate Leadership Summit.

“We have a history of giants in this state,” said Metro Councilor Carlotta Collette in a keynote address.

Oregon led the nation in establishing an urban growth boundary, land-use planning and other measures that will help reduce carbon emissions, Collette said, so it’s an apt place to counteract global warming on a local level.

In a poll commissioned for the climate summit, Portland pollster Adam Davis noted that Portland-area residents support many of the policies needed to stem climate change, though they may not say that’s the reason they prefer those policies. Portlanders generally support limiting sprawl and expanding transit, for example, but not so much as remedies for climate change but as ways to address livability.

The poll of 600 residents in the region by Davis, Hibbitts & Midghall Inc., 70 percent said they support keeping a tight urban growth boundary, while only 16 percent oppose the idea, Davis said. Of those polled, 53 percent said that global warming is caused largely by humans, while 33 percent said it’s caused by natural conditions.

When told of the state’s ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals, 58 percent said they support them, while 23 percent oppose them. When asked how urgent climate change should be for local governments to address, 62 percent said it was urgent, while 30 percent said it isn’t.

If the LCDC adopts the 21 percent target at planned April 21 and May 19 meetings, Metro must present two scenarios for meeting the goal to state land-use regulators next year.

Though Metro must devise scenarios to meet the new goals, this is not a state requirement — yet — to actually meet the terms of the plan.

“It’s a planning exercise; it’s what would it take” to meet the goals, said Mary Weber, climate education specialist for the state Department of Land Conservation and Development.