We Just Dropped 14,000+ Signatures Off at City Hall!
Eugene residents are ready to see billion-dollar corporations contribute more to their community. Today, along with our local partners Beyond Toxics, Oregon Just Transition Alliance, 350 Eugene, and others, we joined supporters of the Eugene Clean Energy Fund to turn in more than 14,000 signatures at City Hall. The campaign needs 8,726 valid signatures to qualify the initiative for the November ballot, and we feel good about our odds. The city now has 30 days to verify those signatures.
"Today marks a major milestone in our campaign, and the over 14,000 signatures that we are submitting are a testament to the overwhelming support that our initiative has in the community," said Aya Cockram, Co-Chief Petitioner and Oregon Energy Transition Organizer with Breach Collective. "Eugene voters are hungry to make billion dollar corporations pay their fair share, and to support investments in climate, clean energy jobs and community benefits."
It took a lot of work to get this far.
We have spent months at community events, on doorsteps, at the farmers market talking about the opportunity to turn corporate profits into community power. The Eugene Clean Energy Fund would place a 2% Large Retailer License Fee on corporations that earn more than $1 billion in profits annually in the United States, and over $500,000 in profits right here in Eugene. We’re talking Amazon, Walmart, Target… companies that can spare 2% and won’t even notice it’s gone.
That money would then go toward programs that will directly benefit the Eugene community: renewable energy and energy efficiency, clean energy jobs training and apprenticeships, green infrastructure, and future innovation. ECEF is based off of the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF), which passed in 2018 and has invested over $1.7 billion into climate and clean energy projects across the city. Now, it’s our turn.
"Billion dollar corporations like Amazon and Target pollute our neighborhoods, sending their profits to their investors on Wall Street while working families in Eugene struggle to stay afloat. ECEF is going to change that, putting a small portion of these massive corporate dollars into investments that will benefit our City and our communities," said Joel Iboa, Co-Chief Petitioner and Executive Director of Oregon Just Transition Alliance. "These funds will directly help frontline members of our community, reducing energy costs, expanding access to life-saving cooling, and creating good paying clean energy jobs."
If the Eugene Clean Energy Fund passes in November, we anticipate $15 million a year will be invested back into our Eugene community, overseen by a committee of appointed Eugene residents. That means good jobs, cleaner air, lower bills. The initiative centers actual outcomes and for the people who need it most, with a committee built to prioritize low-income and historically marginalized communities across Eugene.
"The Eugene Clean Energy Fund initiative will create family-sustaining jobs for Eugene residents, who will be able to find meaningful careers building their community and lifting up their neighbors by building out renewable energy infrastructure," said Brian Noble, Regional Manager Northwest Regional Council of SMART, Local 16. "I know how important this work is, because I lived and worked in Eugene and the surrounding area for 28 years, while enrolling in and completing SMART Local 16's sheet metal apprenticeship program. Being a sheet metal worker meant that I was able to provide a roof, food, and good benefits, including full-family healthcare for my family while building hospitals, schools, and affordable housing for our community."
This campaign is led by Beyond Toxics, Oregon Just Transition Alliance, Breach Collective, Oregon League of Conservation Voters, and the Sierra Club, and backed by more than sixty organizations, local businesses, and elected officials who've decided enough is enough. That list includes the Eugene Education Association, Senator James Manning Jr., Tacovore, Hummingbird Wholesale, and former Mayor Kitty Piercy.
