Continuing to hold the City of Portland accountable re: Zenith.
A few updates on the Zenith campaign.
Zenith Energy wants to transfer its franchise agreement to an affiliate of the Miami-based private equity giant I Squared Capital. We have concerns.
On July 23, Portland City Council’s ‘Committee of the Whole’ discussed the transfer. City attorneys and staff withheld key information to the public: they refused to release the documents behind their recommendation to approve the transfer. The Portland Mercury later obtained public records that seem to show why: I Squared’s attorneys believed they were working with the mayor and city administration to “manage potential public opposition,” and that city staff anticipated pushback from the public.
Then in a public hearing earlier this month, dozens of Portlanders testified passionately to the ‘Committee of the Whole’ about the mayor and city administration denying their rights to full information. Only after public testimony, questioning from councilors, and media inquiries did City Attorney Robert Taylor agree to release of these records. They are now available here.
It should not require a huge mobilization of the communities they serve for the mayor, high level administrators, and the City Attorneys to respect basic due process.
Portlanders also testified about the serious implications of this transfer. I Squared has been public about its ambitions to expand the site into a regional fuel hub. The site sits in Portland’s Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub, on soil that will liquefy in an earthquake, next to neighborhoods, schools, and the Willamette River. Residents are already living with the risk posed by existing fossil fuel storage in that area, and I Squared Capital’s plans would only increase threats to those communities’ health and safety. During the hearing, I Squared tried to distance itself from Zenith, but the company will retain Zenith’s terminal operators and continue the expansion plans. Essentially, it plans to be Zenith but under a new name.
The City Attorney’s office confirmed that this franchise transfer is a legislative decision – meaning City Council doesn’t just serve as a rubber stamp. It can deny the transfer outright, or it can approve it only with certain conditions attached. Unfortunately, seven councilors – Councilors Ryan, Smith, Pirtle-Guiney, Clark, Zimmerman, and Dunphy – rubber stamped it anyway and voted to advance the franchise transfer to the full council with a do pass recommendation. We are disappointed that this item will go to the full council without the public being allowed access to all of the information.
We are in the Zenith fight for the long haul, no matter the name of the company managing the terminal. We want to stop the expansion of liquid fuel infrastructure at the CEI Hub, and see a managed decline of fuel storage capacity to make Portland safer. Given the mayor’s refusal to hold Zenith accountable to its own franchise agreement in the past, we will continue to demand that any transfer to I Squared be conditioned on a third-party enforcement mechanism. This would allow members of the public to enforce the conditions of the franchise agreement even if the city won’t.
