Several representatives to a region-wide advisory committee said Wednesday that Metro's Climate Smart Communities program is about more than tailpipe emissions, saying it's about what citizens want in their communities.
The project, a result of a state mandate to reduce tailpipe emissions in the Portland region, is looking at ways to meet that goal – and the impacts those methods could have. No plans have been selected while researchers study how various ways of curbing tailpipe emissions could impact the economy, public health, transportation and more.
But a discussion about the project Wednesday at the Metro Policy Advisory Committee drew a familiar response from Vancouver City Councilmember Bill Turlay. Vancouver would not be subject to Oregon's state mandate, but the city has an advisory seat on MPAC, and Turlay has questioned the tailpipe emissions project in the past.
At an April 12, 2012 MPAC meeting, Turlay said he welcomed an increase in global carbon monoxide because it would increase global food production. A year later, he dialed back those remarks – to a degree.
"Maybe what we're doing here is not going to have a significant difference because of what the rest of the world is doing?" Turlay asked. "If we meet our goals here, are we sacrificing a lot of our energy, which does affect our economic health?"
John Williams, Metro's deputy planning director, said that's part of the ongoing tailpipe emissions study.
"We recognize that climate goals themselves don't bring everyone to the table," Williams said. "We may find that we met those climate goals, but we're doing these seven other things for our communities that we can all agree are good things, independent of the climate goals."
Oregon City Mayor Doug Neeley said the emissions reduction challenge represented an opportunity for the United States to renew its place as a global economic leader.
"If we expect China to take the leadership, or somebody else to take the leadership, I don’t think we'll have the same status in the world that we've had in the post-World War II environment," Neeley said.
Marc San Soucie, a Beaverton city councilor and the husband of Metro Councilor Kathryn Harrington, said he keeps looking for places where the goals coming out of the Climate Smart Communities project conflict with the goals his city's citizens have asked Beaverton to focus on.
"People told us, in our town, to do this," San Soucie said. "I'm going through, watching this process and watching our own process, and I'm trying to identify places where there's friction or dissonance… and I'm not seeing them yet."
Bob Grover, the citizen representative from Washington County on MPAC, said the concepts and goals of reducing greenhouse gases were great – but questioned whether they were too ambitious and could negatively impact the economy.
"We need to reduce greenhouse gases," he said, "but we also have to try to rein in and not try to solve all the world's problems with these objectives."
But Marilyn McWilliams, a commissioner on the Tualatin Valley Water District board, said the issue wasn't necessarily zero-sum game.
"I would like to warn us against the possibility about being dualistic about this, in saying it's either the environment or the economy," she said. "There's ways we can creatively do both."
She pointed to computer programs the water district uses to ensure efficient driving routes for employees.
"You're saving not only gas, but the time and labor of your employees," McWilliams said. "So I don't think it has to be an either-or."
MPAC is scheduled to vote on criteria to use in evaluating ways to curb tailpipe emissions at a meeting in May.