PCEF is for Our Clean Energy Future, Not a Fund to Cover Police or Rebuild the Moda Center
The Portland Clean Energy Community Benefit Fund (PCEF) has helped hundreds of people, like Walter Little, stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer by funding programs like Verde free or low cost energy-efficient home heating and cooling systems.
For Walter, the program was a lifeline. “I’m very low income. After paying the necessities and stuff, I have $100 a month, and it has to pay for my car insurance and the fuel for my car. There’s no way I could have, even on a payment plan, have afforded this.”
In five years, PCEF funding has led to the:
distribution of 21,000 air conditioners
planting of 15,000 trees
climate retrofitting of 3,100 homes
development of community solar projects that will power a few thousand homes
training of more than 2,000 people for high-paying clean energy and green jobs
and so much more
It is why so many community leaders and community-based organizations, including Verde, came together to pass this initiative in 2018. And, Portlanders saw the potential of a clean energy future when they overwhelmingly voted to pass PCEF.
Even with all of these successes, many have begun to target the significant revenues PCEF is generating for their own interests.
A Political Action Committee supported by the Portland Police Union is trying to pass an initiative that will divert 25% of PCEF funding to hire 400 more police officers. This is in spite of the fact the Portland Police already have a nearly 10% vacancy rate in positions that are budgetarily approved. After spending over a million dollars on signature gathering, they recently submitted 62,000 signatures to be on the ballot in November. In the signature gathering process more than 90 complaints of deceitful practices have been filed, including undercover video recordings.
There are continued efforts to utilize PCEF to fund the Moda Center renovations, even though the Moda Center already has the highest certification in the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).
These groups often make claims that there are surplus funds available from PCEF. This is not true. PCEF is funded through a 1% surcharge on billion-dollar corporations with over $500,000 in revenue from Portland. Initial estimates were that the fund would generate $60-80 million a year, but with increased spending at stores like Amazon, the fund has generated $200 million a year.
PCEF was designed to partner with federal investments in our clean energy transition. Unfortunately, the Trump Administration has cut back investments in our clean energy transition. We need every dollar from PCEF to provide life-saving programs like Verde’s Home Heating and Cooling program, as well as many other programs that build resilience for our community and reduce emissions. All of PCEF’s funding has already been dedicated to clean energy and green infrastructure programs in 2029, yet there is still a great need for more.
That is why the community organizations that advocated for the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefit Fund have come back together as Friends of PCEF. You can learn more about the work PCEF is making possible on our new Instagram page.
You can also help protect PCEF by following the Hands Off PCEF campaign, which is working to make sure that in November, Portlanders vote No on 1PDX2026, the Portland Police Union’s initiative to hire more police.