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Scores of people came out for the Portland City Council meeting this past Wednesday to show their support for two resolutions against fossil fuel exports and oil shipments by train. The council passed a resolution that will oppose increased crude oil shipments by train. A final vote on a resolution that would ban new fossil fuel export facilities in the city is expected to take place Thursday.

Local stakeholders, including members of the building community, are opposing that resolution.

鈥淭here’s too many unanswered questions in both resolutions,鈥� said Willy Myers, executive secretary-treasurer of the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council. 鈥淭here’s no question that the city needs to come up with a policy dealing with fossil fuels. I’m not sure an all-out ban is the solution. We can’t turn the switch off tomorrow and suddenly go to renewables. We don’t have the infrastructure for it.

鈥淭here are several of my members and my affiliate’s members that are reliant upon that industry in some way, shape, or form, to feed their families. By turning that switch off, all of a sudden, you’re creating a much larger affordable housing issue, a much larger wage disparity issue. There’s a way to transition this. An all-out, stop work order is not the way to do it.鈥�

Also, the Oregon-Columbia chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 48 sent a letter to city commissioners denouncing the fossil fuel regulations.

Myers said that if Portland is serious about being green, it should look first to buildings 鈥� including those the city owns 鈥� and increase their energy efficiency.