(Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
A retired Portland bike shop owner is working to galvanize local awareness and action to move federal climate change legislation forward.
Rich Fein sold Cynergy E-Bikes (3838 SE Powell) at the end of 2020, but he hasn’t slowed down. He’s now working to get Portland bike shops signed onto the Biking Industry Climate Declaration.
The declaration is spearheaded by an arm of the nonprofit Citizen’s Climate Lobby as part of a broader effort aimed at building support for the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, a bill introduced into the U.S. Congress in 2019 as H.R. 763. (You might recall our guest post in September from a BikePortland reader and Citizen’s Climate Lobby volunteer.)
Elements of the bill include a carbon fee at the source of all fossil fuels that would be paid out as dividends to Americans.
So far Fein says 11 local shops have signed the declaration supporting the bill:
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Fat Tire Farm
River City Bicycles
Clever Cycles
West End Bikes
The E-Bike Store
Cynergy E-Bikes
Cyclepath
Rose City Recumbents
Recumbent PDX
Go By Bike
Nomad Cycles
The declaration is also supported by the National Bicycle Dealers Association.
“The bike industry is in a unique position for taking action on the climate. That’s especially the case for bike dealers, working the front line of our industry,” wrote the NBDA in a statement. “Many of us are serving as energy-saving evangelists, promoting bikes and e-bikes as low-carbon, affordable, healthy transportation.”
In other climate news…
— Portland Congressman Earl Blumenauer is urging supporters to sign a petition that encourages the Biden Administration to declare a climate emergency.
— Portland-based Families for Climate will host a virtual meet-up March 30th with Aaron Brown of No More Freeways and Victoria Paykar, of Climate Solutions.
— The 11th Annual Northwest Climate Conference kicks off April 6th and will include three full days of workshops, panels, networking sessions, and more.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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