Portland Is First in Nation to Phase out Petroleum Diesel, Replace with Biofuels

by Gosia Wozniacka (The Oregonian/OregonLive) Portland will phase out the sale of petroleum diesel by 2030, in its first major step to reduce carbon emissions by 50% under the city’s recently adopted climate emergency plan.

The unanimous decision by the Portland City Council on Wednesday takes aim at medium and heavy trucks, the city’s fourth largest source of carbon emissions, not by banning them but by shifting their fuel. Starting in 2024, petroleum diesel available for sale in Portland will be blended with renewable fuels at increasingly higher increments, until 99% of it is phased out. Keeping 1% maintains federal tax credits for blenders and wholesalers.

The city’s effort — the first in the nation — includes some concessions to the trucking and fuel industries, whose representatives said they’re worried about adequate supply, especially given that Portland will restrict the use of certain alternative fuels made from feedstock with higher environmental impacts. In response to industry, the city extended the phase-out deadline to 2030 from 2026.

During the phase-out period, fuel suppliers and distributors can use any mix of traditional fuel and biofuels – including biodiesel and renewable diesel. A 15% blend will be required by 2024, 50% by 2026 and 99% by 2030.

In 2006, it became the first city in the U.S. to adopt a renewable fuel standard, which required Portland fuel retailers to sell a minimum blend of 5% biodiesel and a 10% blend of ethanol.

A year later, Oregon adopted its own renewable fuel standard. The 2% biodiesel blending requirement went into effect statewide in 2009, and the state increased the requirement in 2011 to a 5% biodiesel blend, matching Portland’s standard.

Portland retailers were exceeding the city’s 5% minimum biofuel requirement as of 2020 when diesel sold at retail and wholesale locations was at an 11% biofuel blend citywide, said Jacob.

A renewable fuel standard has also been adopted by a dozen states around the country and by the federal government – but Portland’s updated standard far exceeds the federal and state standards. READ MORE