Can Portland green the grid without cutting trees?

To avert heat domes, forest fires, and other climate disasters, we must replace fossil fuel with renewable electricity infrastructure as fast as possible … but not if that requires removing and replanting several hundred trees in Portland’s Forest Park. At least, that’s how local construction union leaders interpret opposition by environmental groups to a plan by Portland General Electric (PGE) to expand existing power lines that go through the north end of the park.

Building trades union members and officers have been submitting comments in favor of the project, encouraged by former Oregon building trades leader John Mohlis, who’s employed as a consultant by PGE.

“New renewable energy projects built by union members will require new transmission capacity, such as the Harborton Reliability Project, to be built,” wrote Jeff Gritz, business manager of Oregon and Southern Idaho District Council of Laborers, in a letter to the City of Portland Hearings Office.

Harborton Reliability Project is PGE’s name for its proposal to upgrade existing transmission lines that connect the massive Harborton substation in Portland’s Linnton neighborhood to the westside suburbs. For at least five decades high-voltage lines owned by PGE and Bonneville Power Administration have run through the park. PGE wants to upgrade a quarter mile of existing line and add two electric towers and an adjacent 1,400 foot line. That would require removal of 376 living trees and 21 dead trees, totaling 4.7 acres. PGE proposes to replace those by planting 398 new trees in the same area, plus 400 trees nearby outside the park.

PGE spokesperson Andrea Platt says the project is needed to keep the electric grid reliable: Peak electricity demand has been increasing in recent years as Portlanders install air conditioners and heat pumps and shift to electric cars.

“When we hit those peaks, those really extreme temperatures, everybody flips on the power at once,” Platt said. “We need to plan our system to be able to meet that surge in demand. Our modeling shows that as we get toward 2028, we’re going to be operating really close to the very edges of our ability to meet that without outages.”

Even though PGE has the existing easement and right of way for its power lines that go through the park, under a 1995 city ordinance any work in that area must comply with the Forest Park Natural Resources Management Plan. Portland’s Bureau of Development Services and Parks Bureau say PGE’s proposal doesn’t meet conditions for approval.

The Forest Park Conservancy and Oregon Bird Alliance, joined by conservation groups like Sierra Club and 350PDX, want the city to block the project because it would remove trees and disturb frog and bird habitat. They also say PGE could and should build the line outside the park. Platt, the PGE spokesperson, says PGE did consider other routes, but they would also require removal of trees, as well as the demolition of houses and businesses. Property owners were not interested, meaning the utility would have to go through eminent domain, a much more time-consuming, uncertain, and expensive alternative to using its existing right-of-way.

At hearings and through written comments, environmental groups have organized public opposition to the project. To counter that, more than 50 members of IBEW Local 48 signed a letter in support of the project. So did members of Insulators Local 36 and other unions. The project would employ union labor.

“PGE has proven itself to be a reliable and reputable company in adopting and maintaining high labor standards,” wrote Jimbo Anderson, business manager of Operating Engineers Local 701, “particularly through its responsible contractor policy, which requires high-road labor standards on all major infrastructure projects.”

The Port of Portland also came out in favor, saying the transmission is needed to meet electrical demand at the Mass Timber Housing Innovation Campus at Terminal 2. The public comment period closed Feb. 17, and a land-use hearing officer will have up to two weeks to make a decision. At that point, it’s likely that the losing side would appeal, and the decision would go to Portland City Council.