Climate Change Challenges Portland Natural Gas Utility
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QB quandary Suspect Ducks struggling at most important position Portland— SEE LIFE, B1 Tribune TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2015 • TWICE CHOSEN THE NATION’S BEST NONDAILY PAPER • PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM • PUBLISHED TUESDAY AND THURSDAY City declares housing emergency, starts to act Now what? economy for drawing new peo- Questions remain on The unanimous vote fol- ple to town and driving up next steps, paying for lowed hours of emotional testi- rents, reducing the amount of mony from people living on the affordable housing units not solutions to crisis streets and tenants who are owned by public agencies or being forced to move by no- nonprofi t organizations. How- Relocating the By JIM REDDEN fault evictions and rent in- ever, some landlords said they Right 2 Dream The Tribune creases. Advocates for low-in- were only responding to the Too homeless come people and landlords also law of supply and demand. camp in Old The City Council declared testifi ed. But the ordinance submitted Town is in the a “housing emergency” last Many of the witnesses works. week. blamed Portland’s recovering See HOUSING / Page 3 TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO CLIMATE CHANGE CHALLENGES PORTLAND NATURAL GAS UTILITY PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP FILE PHOTO Clackamas County Chair John Ludlow says his commission is not willing to simply sign off on the Metro Council’s urban reserve decision. Showdown coming Fred Meyer fl eet manager Nick between Metro, Brocato pumps fuel into one of the retailer’s Clackamas County new LNG-fueled freight trucks in mand,” says a letter signed by Clackamas. LNG Commissioners Chairman John Ludlow. “Finally, produces fewer we want to communicate that pollutants and want more land Clackamas County does not in- carbon tend to review or co-adopt fi nd- emissions than for development ings on the Stafford area until diesel fuel. the planned facilitated discus- TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO By PETER WONG sion is completed.” Pamplin Media Group Ludlow was present but did not speak at the fi rst of two hear- ■ A showdown is looming be- ings by the Metro Council, NW Natural a leader in its fi eld but long- tween the Metro Council and whose seven members are elect- term future cloudy as a fossil fuels provider Utility tamps down Clackamas County commis- ed. The council plans a second sioners over whether unin- hearing Nov. 19. corporated areas other than Council President Tom By STEVE LAW which produces half the carbon the Stafford Triangle should Hughes says the focus is on The Tribune emissions. NW Natural is in on methane leaks be considered for future de- whether to reaffi rm its earlier talks with PGE about expanding velopment. decision on the Stafford Trian- Gregg Kantor, CEO of NW its Mist underground gas stor- Seepage from natural sions advantage over coal The council heard Thursday, gle or broaden the discussion to Natural, says these are excit- age facility northwest of Port- when the leakage rate hits 6 Oct. 8, from almost 20 witnesses, other areas. ing times to lead a natural gas land to store gas for PGE, Kan- gas wells seen as percent to 8 percent, he most of whom say the council While Multnomah County al- utility. tor says. dangerous, costly says. should limit its consideration to so is involved, virtually all of the But the 156-year-old Portland Garbage trucks, buses, and Fred Huette, who repre- additional evidence that would discussion was about Clacka- company’s reputation for pro- freight trucks are increasingly By STEVE LAW sents the Sierra Club in in- support its 2011 decision to des- mas County. Washington Coun- viding clean energy is being se- shifting from diesel fuel to natu- The Tribune ternational climate talks, ignate the Stafford Triangle as ty’s reserves were settled by the verely tested, and its longterm ral gas, which runs cleaner and disputes that. an urban reserve. That designa- Legislature, which acted in 2014 future is hazy, as Oregon grap- releases less carbon emissions. As much of the world “Roughly speaking, ana- tion would allow development after the Court of Appeals deci- ples with climate change And NW Natural is a national frantically tries to ramp lysts say if the leakage rate within the next 50 years of an sion. wrought by the burning leader in modernizing down the use of fossil fu- is above 3 percent, it really estimated 6,230 acres bordering of fossil fuels. its pipeline system to els — the primary cause starts to look not much bet- Tualatin, Lake Oswego and One side speaks out For now, though, NW minimize natural gas of global warming — the ter than coal,” Huette says. West Linn, and north of Wilson- Most of the comments came Natural is in an envi- leaks. natural gas industry pins Any methane leak can be ville. down on one side of the issue. able position. NW Natural has a its hopes on the fact that it dangerous and costly to The issue is back in the hands “It seems to me the elephant J.D. Power and Asso- good idea where it’s produces only half the companies. of Metro and Clackamas County in this room is an attempt to ciates just named it headed in the next fi ve carbon emissions of coal. In August, President as a result of a 2014 decision by scuttle the process by Clacka- best in the West for cus- to 10 years, Kantor But that advantage slips Obama proposed the na- the Oregon Court of Appeals mas County tomer satisfaction says. away if too much natural tion’s fi rst limits on meth- and a subsequent remand by the commission- among natural gas utili- After that, it’s any- gas escapes into the atmo- ane leaks, hoping to reduce state Land Conservation and De- ers,” says Tony ties and tied for second- body’s guess. sphere. Methane, the main leaks 20 to 30 percent. velopment Commission, which Holt, president best nationally. “We’ve got Despite the utility’s component of natural gas, The average methane had approved the designation of of the Charbon- Thanks to “fracking” reputation for forward commonly leaks during all leakage attributed to local urban and rural reserves. neau Home- drilling methods, the a sustain- thinking and well-run three stages of the process: distribution systems like “To go through this process in owners Associ- domestic supply of nat- ability operations, it sells only at the drill site, in interstate NW Natural is only 0.24 per- the same way would be a terri- ation. “Two or ural gas is so abundant advantage.” one product, a fossil fu- gas pipelines, and local dis- cent, Edmonds says, and its ble waste of time,” says William three members that two companies are el, at a time of mount- tribution systems that pipe rate is lower than that. Riggs, a retired justice of the Or- seem obsessed TOM MALETIS jockeying to build ex- — Gregg Kantor, ing calls to reduce fos- gas into homes and busi- NW Natural, which egon Supreme Court who lives with changing port terminals on the NW Natural CEO sil fuel use. nesses. serves much of Oregon and in Wilsonville. the designation Oregon Coast. The am- Last month, the Port- Methane is at least 20 Southwest Washington, has But Clackamas County com- of property owned by one family ple supply of natural land City Council and times more potent than car- moved aggressively to re- missioners want to reopen con- — the Maletis brothers — south gas makes it one of the Multnomah County bon dioxide as a greenhouse place old cast-iron and bare- sideration of three other areas of the Willamette River.” cheapest forms of energy. Board of Commissioners passed gas, so small leaks have a steel pipes with plastic and now designated as rural re- His reference was to Chris “Our rates are where they resolutions barring the city and huge environmental impact. coated-steel pipes, which serves — among them an area and Tom Maletis, who own were 15 years ago,” Kantor says, county from investing in most The Environmental Pro- leak less. It has no more south of Wilsonville that in- Langdon Farms Golf Club. and the company expects to oil, coal and natural gas bonds. tection Agency currently es- cast-iron pipes and will re- cludes the Langdon Farms Golf “There seems to be some- drop prices another 7 percent in By year’s end, the Portland timates that 1.3 percent of move the last of its bare- Club — that would leave open thing stinky and unseemly” November — its fi fth rate de- City Council expects to approve methane leaks during the steel pipes this year, Ed- the potential for their future de- about the timing of the action, crease in seven years. a fossil fuel export policy, put- entire process, says Bill Ed- monds says. velopment. says Eric Hoem, another resi- Crosstown rivals PGE and Pa- ting the city on record opposed monds, NW Natural’s direc- “The good news on the “Until our work is complete, dent. cifi c Power are looking to de- to exporting coal, oil and, poten- tor of environmental man- NW Natural gas side is we we will not be in a position to ap- commission old coal-fi red plants agement and sustainability. are among the tightest utili- prove a new decision on re- See METRO / Page 3 and substitute natural gas, See GAS / Page 2 Natural gas loses its emis- ties in the country.” “Pamplin Media Group’s pledge is to Portland Tribune deliver balanced news that refl ects the ‘SEEING NATURE’ stories of our communities. Thank you Inside — SEE LIFE, PAGE B10 for reading our newspapers.” — DR.