In the past, City administrators justified their backroom deal with Zenith Energy based on the unfulfilled ‘promise’ that they would transition fully to ‘renewable fuels’ by 2027. Clearly, Zenith’s ongoing fossil fuel expansion and exports demonstrated that was not their intent. As advocates predicted, the City was scammed.
Now, Zenith is sneaking out of town by selling to I Squared Capital, a $60 billion equity firm with no technical expertise in managing a bulk fossil fuel terminal and a history of illegal violations in the UK, Florida, and New York. At a time of fires and growing climate chaos here and across much of the country, it seems inconceivable that Portland is talking about transferring Zenith’s franchise (the same franchise that two Mayoral administrations refused to enforce on) to a giant private equity firm with 79% of their energy holdings in fossil fuels. In December 2025, I Squared Capital (ISQ) announced expansion plans for a regional “renewable fuels” export Hub. City staff denied knowing about this despite evidence to the contrary.
The same City administrators and attorneys withheld documents from Council and the public about their review of ISQ. When the public started to call for safeguarding measures, Zenith sued alleging ‘delay’ in an effort to ‘intimidate’ and force a quick decision, just as Council began their hearings on the issue. On August 6th, the Committee of the Whole Council (Finance and Governance) heard over 2 hours of public testimony, mostly from community members concerned about the transfer, non-transparency, the City’s withholding of critical information, and ISQ’s technical, legal, and financial qualifications.
Even so, a majority of Councilmembers (Ryan, Smith, Clark, Zimmerman, Pirtle-Guiney, Novick, and Dunphy) voted to send it to the full City Council for a vote with a ‘do pass’ recommendation. The City Attorney, at that point, had told ISQ that it would need 9 votes to pass. Subsequently, the Portland Mercury reported that the City was in the process of rewriting rules to allow it to pass with a simple majority as a transfer, not a new franchise. Changing of charter rules mid-stream and public records revelations of City efforts to “manage public opposition” and general non-transparency have further shaken public trust.
At the hearing, ISQ put forward a huge greenwashing effort about helping Portland with our climate goals, but did not respond to public calls for meeting to hear community concerns and establish a Good Neighbor agreement. Write your City Councilmember and ask them to vote ‘no’ on the Zenith franchise agreement until better safeguards are in place to ensure future City enforcement. Within the franchise agreement, Council should ensure third-party oversight along with regular performance evaluations and violations viewed as cause for termination. Plus, Council must pass a separate emergency resolution preventing fuel expansion permits until the CEI HUB policy has been implemented. Without this protection, our safety remains vulnerable to profiteers from outside our community who we KNOW have shown little regard for community safety and concerns in other places.
