With Oregon's last remaining coal plant scheduled to close in 2020, Portland General Electric must find a new way to generate 561 megawatts of energy annually. But Portlanders are not willing to switch from one fossil fuel to another to meet this need. In August, they rejected two gas-fired power plants that would have committed the city to fossil fuels for another 30 years. Responding to public outcry, the Oregon Public Utility Commission denied Portland General Electric's proposal to build the plants—which, combined, would have become one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the state—and ordered the company to explore renewable options instead. 

The Sierra Club and local partners submitted over 10,000 comments to the PUC in opposition to more electricity from fracked gas, and 100 climate advocates testified at a PUC hearing. Laura Stevens, senior organizing representative for the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, credited the initiative's success to at least 200 volunteers, many of whom became active following President Donald Trump's election. "When we started, we thought there was very little chance we would be able to win against both fracked-gas plants," Stevens says. "What won this campaign was grassroots activism."

This article appeared in the January/February 2018 edition with the headline "Portland Says Frack No."