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The Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund is now seeking proposals from nonprofits for community projects that are climate focused and intended to help people who bear the brunt of a changing climate.
PCEF is awarding $8.6 million worth of grants to qualifying nonprofits that submit the most innovative community projects aimed at fighting climate change and progressing racial and social justice.
In 2018, Portland voters passed the ballot measure creating the Portland Clean Energy Fund, taxing large companies to fund home weatherization and other climate projects. It's expected to raise $44 million to $61 million a year, although it's unclear what impact the pandemic will have on those estimates.
This is the first round of funding set to be made available since the measure passed. City officials say it will give marginalized communities a chance to find creative ways to benefit the environment.
The announcement comes at a moment when people in the city are experiencing a vivid impact of climate change: Smoke from wildfires blankets Portland, giving the city some of the worst air quality in the nation.
The community projects are intended to create more renewable energy, energy-efficiency investments in homes and other buildings, regenerative agriculture, and other green infrastructure projects.
Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty both expressed their support in a statement. Hardesty said climate justice helps achieve racial justice, and Ted Wheeler said this program offers hope.
Applications are due Nov. 16 and grants will be awarded in late February. Creation of the grants was the work in part of the PCEF grant committee and staff, the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, the mayor's office, and frontline communities.
There will be six informational webinars before the deadline. Anyone in need of translation services must submit a request by Sept. 22.
PCEF program manager Sam Baraso said this project will be a national model for inclusivity in climate action.
"Portland is known as an incredibly green city. It's partially true, but those sustainability benefits have not benefitted communities of color and low income folks," Baraso said. "There has never been a program that has said we are going to invest in shaping a clean energy system for the future and we're going to do that in a way that people who have been left out are included explicitly."
