Oregon Environmental Council

compiled in 2002

from the www.orcouncil.org website

* Good-bye Gridlock: Improving the Way Oregon Funds
Transportation. A report on how to make the transportation system
more efficient, affordable and environmentally sound by changing how
Oregonians pay for transportation. 2002
o Executive Summary and Background
o New Funding Options
o Investment Options
o Funding Package
* An Expensive Love Affair: Are You Getting Taken for a Ride? This brochure details the true costs of driving. 1998
* Your Guide to a Climate Friendly Ride. This brochure shows you how to improve the fuel economy of your car. 1999
* Clearing the Way with Congestion Relief Tolls. This brochure describes the benefits of variable road pricing. 1997 (call OEC for a copy)

from Goodbye Gridlock

"Relieve congestion and reduce unnecessary road building with value pricing: An extensive highway and road system links all of Oregon's communities, but excess traffic on certain segments harms the economy and frustrates travelers. Value pricing (tolls that vary by time of day) is used successfully on highways around the world, including California, to discourage discretionary travel on the busiest roads at the busiest hours. Tolls can be raised to account for the cost of congestion during peak hours on congested routes and lowered at less congested times. Drivers who pay the higher toll experience a faster, easier, less stressful trip. Others shift their trips to off-peak to avoid the additional charge, switch to less congested roadways, take transit, or participate in carpools or vanpools. Because value pricing reduces congestion, it reduces the need to build expensive new capacity."

comment from Mark:

Variable road pricing is a mechanism where people pay more to use toll roads at peak hours. Marketed as a good thing by corporate funded environmental groups (ie. Environmental Defense Fund), it would also establish discriminatory approaches to transportation based on wealth and would further the interests of the total surveillance society (the tolls would require radio transponders in each car, which would allow monitoring of when everyone participating in the system was driving, when, where, etc.). Setting up a "big brother" system to spy on drivers that favored the more wealthy over the working class motorists is not likely to reduce car dependency or make transportation choices less inequitable. If it was up to me, I'd make the CEO's take the bus and let the minimum wage workers use the new, exclusive lanes!
A $5 surcharge for using a busy freeway would be of minor concern for a corporate executive, but more significant for a minimum wage employee of that same corporation. Since the surcharges are unlikely to be accompanied with substantial improvements in public transportation, it is a highly regressive tax. One of the primary things that has kept the highway departments from building all of their wish lists - nationally, not merely in Oregon - is the lack of funds. Merely raising more money for roads without a substantive political shift, including strict campaign finance reform, is likely to result in more roads being built, not the vision that OEC advocates. (It's why the defeat of the May 2000 gas tax increase was a good thing, even though gasoline is FAR too cheap and its true cost should reflect the rate of depletion and the long term impacts of climate change.)

A practical implication of OEC's recommendation in Oregon.

Since there aren't any toll roads in Oregon, a question is raised about what roads would have tolls. Converting over a non-toll road to a toll road that would require use of a radio transponder would not be practical to do for the entire road (all lanes). In California, the demonstration of this type of toll has been on special [new] lanes called HOT - High Occupancy Toll. These HOT lanes are High Occupancy Vehicle lanes (2 or more people, 3 or more, etc) that also allow those who can afford the surcharge to use these less busy lanes for a fee, if they have a special transponder and a credit card, since many HOV lanes have been attacked for being relatively empty during commute hours (a sign of how dysfunctional our society is).

Logically, OEC is tacitly suggesting

- adding lanes to freeways in the Portland metro area (which would be very expensive, especially where overpasses would need to be reconstructed and property seized under eminent domain) and / or

- using this technology for new highways such as the planned Sunset freeway (I-205 to US 26), the West Eugene Parkway, the 99W to I-5 connector planned in the northern valley, and/or other projects.

This technology has been dubbed "Lexus Lanes" by environmental justice advocates.

I recommend that citizens donate to groups that do not take large contributions from major polluters, and better yet, to be involved personally in activities, not merely to engage in "checkbook activism." Your donations will always be more appreciated by groups that lack corporate sponsors, and it is probably a more efficient and effective use of your gift.

OEC's website
http://www.orcouncil.org/Events/0203%20BusinessForum.htm#Sponsors
lists the following as donors (partial list). Stating that these firms are interested in protecting the environment - despite their record as major polluters - is "greenwash" (the false claim of environmentalism). These companies need the public relations more than the environmental movement needs their money.

Harrang Long Gary Rudnick PC
law firm that represents Eugene polluters AND the city of Eugene OEC's board includes a representative from this firm, which has unusual influence over a city the size of Eugene

http://www.orcouncil.org/About/Board.htm
Jerome Lidz Jerome was attorney-in-charge of the Natural Resources Section of the Oregon Department of Justice's General Counsel Division for five years. He is now an attorney in private practice with Harrang Long Gary Rudnick in Eugene, where he specializes in local government law. He makes his home in Eugene.

[There are so many governmental figures on OEC's board that "non governmental organization" is probably not an accurate description for this organization. The former environmental policy manager for Associated Oregon Industries is on the board, but there doesn't seem to be much, if any, grassroots, non-foundation-funded environmentalist representation.]

Nike
major polluter, greenhouse gas emitter (shipping shoes across the ocean from Indonesian sweatshops), human rights violator
see Michael Moore's film "the Big One" for more on Nike
Phil Knight was apparently the largest donor for the Autzen stadium expansion - football is more important than keeping the school system financially afloat (bread and circuses!)

PG&E Corporation

PGE
In 2001, OEC sponsored a forum on electricity issues that invited a major proponent of Enron's takeover of Portland General Electric (Ralph Cavanah of NRDC worked for Enron's takeover). Advocates of public ownership for Oregon's largest utility were not invited to speak (of course, those advocates have not made large contributions to OEC).

CH2M Hill
nuclear waste contractor, principal contractor on West Eugene Parkway project, countless other ecocidal projects -- yet another company that is a privatized segment of the government (nearly all of their work is government contracting)

The Pape Group
bulldozers and highways (not just for Eugene)

Fishman Environmental Services
subcontractor for West Eugene Parkway (did some of the wetlands studies for ODOT)

Umpqua Bank
major funder of old growth clearcutting

Cogan, Owens, Cogan
designer of new highway projects in metro portland area

Weyerhauser was a sponsor last year, but is not listed in this year's program. This company is now the largest private land owner in Oregon, with their damage easily visible in satellite photos. Perhaps the worst clearcutter in the northwest. see www.endgame.org for more on them