The disturbing plan for Portland's citizens to be monitored and manipulated into a transformative culture based on the premise that their efforts will save the planet. This is being codified in the updated and infamous document known as the Portland Plan. From the Portland Tribune, 3/3/15, "Plan jells to tackle climate change":
"Authors also addressed the disproportionate impacts of climate change on the poor, elderly and people of color, and the consequent need to address equity in neighborhoods. For Portland, that means adding more sidewalks, transit, bikeways, parks and other amenities in East Portland, and portraying those deficiencies as environmental issue as well as an equity issue."
It doesn't matter that more parks will not lower GHG - they just need to portray deficiencies as environmental issues.
Portland Tribune, March 3, 2015 By Steve Law
Plan jells to tackle climate change
Portlanders, you're driving too much and eating too much red meat.
And office tower landlords, you need to take major steps to cut energy usage.
The update [of the Portland Plan] promotes scores of changes in our behavior, lifestyle, government and business practices so we can do our part to slash carbon emissions and prevent serious global warming -- the biggest environmental threat to our planet aside from nuclear war.
The scary part is that means rolling back our carbon emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels over the next 15 years, and 80 percent over the next 35 years.
(ROTFL!)
The article goes on, and on, and on to tell us all how the City of Portland is going to save the planet by torturing its citizens. In some weird universe, Portland Central Planners believe they can save the planet by - well, the list is long. The recommendations that caught my eye were:
1) measuring carbon emissions by all the "stuff" we consume, including food,
Lake Oswego's GHG Inventory was based on assumed consumption of energy and material goods as measured by wealth. In short, the more money a community has, the more cars they own, the more airplane trips they take, and the more stuff they buy, the more GHG they emit. Imagine how LO compares to other parts of the Metro area. No matter what we do - we are bad people! The numbers weren't based on real data but theoretical models. Great way to run a city and control its citizens.
2) tripling the number of people who bike or walk by 2030 to reduce the number of vehicle miles traveled
How is the city going to accomplish this feat? I hate to think what draconian regulations will be used to force (encourage?) us to get out of our cars, but I can imagine some.
3) mandating owners of large office buildings to record and publicize their energy use, and for homeowners to have energy performance ratings "so residents will know how much energy they are using."
There is only one reason building owners would be required to measure and provide data on energy usage - to control how much they will be fined/taxed or what they will have to do to get to the city's standards. Anyone who wants to know how much energy is being consumed just has to look at their energy bills. Why then does the city or building owner need the additional information? (The Energy Trust of Oregon will assess any building for free - through a tax on our energy bills - for energy conservation, so getting that information is easy and needs no further help from government.)
4) Portlanders are being asked to "do their part" to save the Earth.
While China dumps out pollutants so thick they cross the Pacific to the U.S. West Coast and pollute our air, we are made to feel weak and bad with guilt-inducing phrases about doing our part and taking on our fair share of the load. And then there's Germany. After years of subsidizing solar and wind power, Germany's economy is being hit with bad economic policies, specifically the government's decision to invest heavily in renewable energy sources. The Economist, 2/14-22/2015, 'No new deal,' "But the biggest problem for many businessmen may be benighted government policies. The main policy is a huge subsidy to solar and wind. The surcharge that many firms have to pay on a unit of energy is larger than the entire cost of electricity paid by firms in America." Are we to repeat Germany's mistakes?
What kind of regime is Portland creating with it's new Plan? Will all of the Metro area be sucked into their vortex?
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