City unveils carbon tax plan
Going green - Portland wants to charge builders who meet efficiency rules and pay those who exceed them
Thursday, November 08, 2007
DYLAN RIVERA
The Oregonian
CHICAGO -- In a bold move to curb the growth of greenhouse gas emissions from the Portland area, city officials plan to charge builders hundreds of dollars for each new home that is not extremely energy efficient. And it would require, as part of every existing home sale, that an energy efficiency report be done by home inspectors.
Believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, the carbon fee and inspection requirement would levy taxes upon builders who merely comply with the energy efficiency requirements of the Oregon building code, already one of the most stringent in the nation. It would then pay cash rewards to developers who make buildings that save at least 45 percent more energy than the code requires.
The plan will go before Portland residents, in hearings, in January. With passage, the carbon-fee rules would be in place by 2010.
Builders in Portland on Wednesday were already pushing back.
"There is no way the homebuilders will ever support a mandated program," said Jim McCauley, vice president of government affairs for the Homebuilders Association of Metropolitan Portland. "This has largely been a totally internal conversation with only select invited parties."
City Commissioner Dan Saltzman announced the plan for Portland in Chicago on Tuesday night at the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, drawing 20,000 environmentally conscious developers and building materials manufacturers from around the world. He did so at an invitation-only reception at the PDX Lounge, a showroom of sustainable products made by Oregon-based architecture firms, wood products companies and furniture designers. Mayor Tom Potter, present for the announcement, said he supports it.
The news was immediately big in Chicago but not yet announced in Portland, where it is designed to significantly influence development.
"This is obviously an ambitious and potentially controversial undertaking, but with the new urgency and call to action on issues around global warming, this is the type of policy that Portland needs to be a leader," Saltzman said.
The plan also helps maintain the city's reputation nationally as a hotbed of green living and stokes a friendly competition with Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and Austin, Texas -- cities that regularly seek to out-green each other. They contend that regions at the leading edge of the sustainability movement will develop local expertise to fill those needs and grow jobs locally as they help other cities imitate their innovations.
Already, Portland's largest developer, Gerding Edlen Development Co., has become the largest builder of condos in downtown Los Angeles and the largest sustainable builder in the nation. ZGF Partnership, the city's largest architectural firm, designs sustainable buildings from New York to Beijing.
"That expertise accrues locally, but it's often exported nationally and internationally, so there's definitely an economic development advantage to doing this as well," Saltzman said. "It's capturing a landscape that's going to be around a long time."
McCauley, in Portland, on Wednesday said Saltzman's decision to unveil the proposal in Chicago instead of Portland undermined the plan's credibility and places Portland in "almost an arms race against other cities."
Details of the plan have not been worked out. To what extent Portland is willing to go along with the combination of fees and rebates remains to be seen.
Dennis Wilde, a principal of Gerding Edlen, endorsed the plan during a panel discussion that followed Saltzman's announcement. Gerding Edlen staff helped draft the city's proposal.
Saltzman acknowledged that home builders may react strongly against it. To ease the industry into the fold, he said the plan would include a two-year period of city-funded technical support and education for builders.
Some Portland-area builders already produce houses that would meet the 30 percent higher efficiency goal. Those achieving a silver rating from the Portland-based Earth Advantage Inc.'s green building program would already comply.
Still, some Portland-area builders were skeptical.
Randy Sebastian, president of Renaissance Homes of Lake Oswego, said a fee-based system seemed "heavy handed" when his company already incorporates green methods in many homes and offers other items, such as solar panels and tankless water heaters, as options.
"There's more green building going on in Portland, Oregon, than anywhere, and there's not a mandate now," he said. "What's broken?"
The carbon tax element, however, is in the vanguard of the sustainable building movement.
"It's bold," said Suzanne Malec-McKenna, Commissioner of the Environment for the city of Chicago. "I think it's great. It's definitely the direction our cities need to be going."
The idea of a tax on emissions was considered politically impossible for years after the Clinton administration failed to win passage of a tax on the heat content of fuels in 1993. But in recent years, support has grown among politicians and businesses concerned about potential economic catastrophe global warming could wreak.
Earlier this month, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed a national carbon tax. Boulder, Colo., passed a tax on electricity use in 2006 -- calling it the nation's first city carbon tax -- to collect money for renewable energy programs.
Construction techniques that include energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, as well as efficient use of water and support for transit use, are rising in popularity as concern over global warming grows. Worldwide, buildings account for about 45 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions -- about as much as automobiles. In many urban areas, the figure is far higher -- in Chicago, for example, buildings account for 61 percent.
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has caught national attention for his goal of making his Midwest industrial and financial powerhouse known as "The Greenest City in America." Chicago has adopted sustainability requirements for city buildings and expedited permitting and waived fees for developers who met the city's energy efficiency goals.
But why announce a new Portland policy in Chicago?
"We want to let people know that we're not resting on our laurels," said Brendan Finn, Saltzman's chief of staff. "What better opportunity to market ourselves to an international audience than at Greenbuild?"
As for sales in the existing housing stock, new inspection reports would carry no penalty fees for deficiencies. The idea is for home inspectors to check on the energy efficiency of the property -- the efficiency ratings of furnaces, air conditioners, and presence of insulation, for example -- and disclose that information to home buyers, sellers and the city.
"We want people to have the ability to get information on carbon emissions and fuel efficiency of something they're buying -- just as if they were buying a car," Saltzman said. "When people are informed, they make better choices."
The information could prompt home sellers to update their home heating and cooling equipment, just as they prep a house for sale by painting it, Saltzman said.
Scott Learn of The Oregonian staff contributed to this report.
Dylan Rivera: 503-221-8532;
dylanrivera@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/orego...680.xml&coll=7
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