Connecting permitted capacity to demand needs to be addressed.
At the CEI Hub, Portland should connect permitted fuel-storage capacity to measured regional demand, and establish a timetable for reducing storage as demand declines. The city should also publish a transition plan for the land rather than allowing fragmented ownership and authority to prevent action on one of Oregon’s greatest environmental and seismic dangers. If the required demand updates in 2028 and 2031 show that our estimates were off, and so we need less storage, we should require a larger reduction, and require part of the 20% reduction happen earlier than 2036 if those demand numbers support it. I don’t *think* that is part of the current plan. I think everything is static. The plan should be more dynamic.
I also don’t think that there is a plan for the future of the terminals. We should start planning and negotiating now for what those facilities, and the land, could become. Housing, restored riverfront, should we revisit the Linnton waterfront initiative from a few years back.
To sum it all up: adjust the storage capacity to decline faster when demand declines faster than the baseline estimates, and start now in thinking about a safe and useful future for the riverfront and Linnton.
