Portland won’t weaken its policy to phase out petroleum diesel and replace it with biofuels

Portland leaders say the city does not plan to roll back its signature climate policy on replacing diesel with renewable fuels, despite a push to do so from an industry-dominated advisory group.

The policy, a first-in-the-nation standard critical to reducing emissions and harmful particulate matter pollution, was adopted by the Portland City Council in 2022. Aimed at medium and heavy trucks, it phases out the sale of petroleum diesel in the city by 2030, gradually replacing it with diesel blended with renewable fuels – also known as biofuels – at increasingly higher increments.

The rollback recommended earlier this month by the Renewable Fuels Standards Advisory Committee, the advisory board, would have allowed trucks to continue to emit black carbon, or “soot,” at a higher level and