Multnomah County climate change report says leaders must oppose freeway expansions

A new report created by the Multnomah County Advisory Committee on Sustainability & Innovation (ACSI) did not mince words on the position elected officials need to take on transportation: No new road capacity should be created or given to people who drive cars and trucks.

That message was delivered Tuesday to the Board of Commissioners via a new report that outlines how Multnomah County should address the climate change crisis. The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the County, so it rightfully played a prominent role in the report.

“Because the climate situation has fundamentally changed, our response to it must also fundamentally change,” wrote committee members.

The ACSI report came just days after the latest U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report was released. That report said local governments should mitigate climate change impacts, “through the provision of less car-dependent transport infrastructure… including protected pedestrian and bike pathways.”

The ASCI committee report strikes a similar tone.

It urges County leaders to spend new federal transportation funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in a way that prioritizes, “projects that provide reliable, affordable, and climate smart transportation options.” Going further, they want commissioners to speak up at regional decision-making bodies like Metro’s Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation and ODOT’s Region 1 Advisory Committee on Transportation. “Use your voice,” the report says, “to not support expanding roadway capacity for private vehicles, e.g. the Interstate Bridge Project and Rose Quarter Project.”

The report also urged the County to do continue their work to tie transportation decisions to public health — especially as it relates to impacts on Black people, Native Americans, and other communities of color that are hardest hit by our current system. ASCI members want more in-depth health impact studies of regional freeway projects that would model emissions and toxic air pollution to vulnerable residents.

The recommendations in this report will loom large in coming months as elected officials throughout the region are asked to vote on a Locally Preferred Alternative for the Interstate Bridge Replacement Project, an expansion of I-5 between Portland and Vancouver. One source tells us an up-or-down vote on the LPA (a federally required step to endorse a general design concept) could happen as early as this June.