Ruling against PGE gives rare affirmation
Neighborhoods credited with leading charge to stop power lines
Yesterday’s unanimous vote against Portland General Electric’s proposed power line extension through Forest Park was anticipated after the City Council signaled its intention after a six-hour public hearing last month. Still, the final 12-0 vote was a significant marker for the increased political traction of citizens, environmentalists, public interest organizations and neighborhood associations against a major local utility.
Neighborhood associations were given backhanded credit in an editorial in The Oregonian, an editorial that considered the power line project essential to the region’s future. That credit may have been exaggerated because one of the two entities appealing a hearings officer’s recommendation in favor of PGE was the Forest Park Neighborhood Association. Other than the FPNA, neighborhood associations were not frontline players in the broad coalition that stopped the project.
But this may be a cue for neighborhood associations to raise their sights: If they champion causes widely popular with and important to Portland residents, growth and greater influence are inevitable, even if the credit is shared.
Over 1,000 people from all over the City testified in writing or in person to oppose PGE's plans. City staff opposed the project, citing 16 different ways it violated zoning codes. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife weighed in on the damage that the project would do, as did the West Mulnomah Soil & Water Conservation District. Non-neighborhood groups such as the Coalition to Protect Forest Park, the Bird Alliance, and the Sierra Club all worked hard to oppose PGE's proposal.
This wasn't a NIMBY issue. This was a science issue.
So are the neighbors of the neighborhood association going to stop using electricity? How is opposing needed infrastructure gonna solve the problem?