Good day,
The City of Portland (Oregon) and Multnomah County are working on a plan that could require fossil fuel companies to prepay for estimated fuel spill costs, the Portland Mercury reports. The proposal is motivated by the potential damage that would occur in the event of a massive earthquake that scientists say will inevitably hit the Pacific Northwest.
Ninety percent of Portland’s fuel supply is stored in aging tanks located in a part of the city built on a liquefaction zone, an area of soil prone to liquify after an earthquake. The subsequent oil spills are expected to spark huge fires.
To mitigate that damage, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners recently passed a resolution to pursue a risk assessment of the tanks, with a focus on holding the entities that own them accountable after the destructive quake hits. The storage terminals are owned by Chevron, BP, Kinder Morgan and other fossil fuel conglomerates.
One possibility, according to the Mercury, is to impose mandatory “risk bonds” against those parties. The companies would pay into a fund managed by a third-party.
Multnomah County and the City of Portland have each committed $50,000 to the risk assessment effort, which is expected to move forward in January 2020.
Did you know?
In 2018, Thanksgiving Day brought in $3.7 billion in online sales, and for Black Friday, $6.2 billion. In 2018, brick and mortar traffic on Thanksgiving and Black Friday fell as much as 9% over 2017. But overall sales continue to rise — as a result of online shopping. Ecommerce sales soared 16.7% over 2017. (BigCommerce)
Quotable:
“There has never been an apple launch of a single variety of this magnitude.”
–Kathryn Grundy, director of marketing, Proprietary Variety Management, on the marketing push behind the Dec. 1 launch of a new apple variety, the Cosmic Crisp. (FreightWaves)
In other news
Italian company produces robot that will carry groceries homePiaggo — famous for the Vespa scooter — is building a robot called”Gita” designed to carry groceries from store to home. (NZcity.co)
LA mayor announces roadmap to reduce carbon emissions
Targets include ensuring 40% of all drayage and short haul trucks and 60% of medium duty delivery trucks will be electric-powered. (NBC)
Top mobility VCs reveal where they put their money
The takeaway: investors are funding startups that bring connectivity to mobility. (TechCrunch)
San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors to vote on an ordinance that would create an Office of Emerging Technology
Companies that want to use public places to gather data, as well as test, pilot or deploy emerging technologies, would be required to pay a $2,006 pilot project review fee. (Bizjournals)
Final thoughts,
California’s proposed Clean Truck Rule is getting pushback from carriers concerned the targets are too ambitious. Meanwhile, in Europe, 30 businesses including Nestle and Unilever have signed a letter to the European Commission that calls for legally binding zero-emission truck and van sales targets for 2025 and 2030, AirQualityNews reports. The businesses stated that binding sales targets will accelerate the uptake of zero-emission vehicles, make air in cities cleaner and put European vehicle-makers at the forefront of innovation. The signatories also say the EU’s 2030 emissions reduction target should be increased to 55% and the bloc should go climate-neutral by 2050.
Hammer down, everyone!
