Today is the last day for Hillsboro residents to take the Climate Action Plan Survey. We have reported on this in the past, but wanted to remind everyone that the deadline is here, and there is still some time. It is essential to do this as the results of this survey will drive tens of millions in City funds and our policies for a wide variety of aspects of our daily lives. You can take that survey right here: Climate Action Plan Citizen Survey- https://engage.hillsboro-oregon.gov/climateplan/surveys/climatesurvey. We appreciate the efforts being made by the City of Hillsboro to address our world climate crisis. But after reviewing hundreds of pages of documents and plans prepared by the consultants, something became glaringly obvious. We, the people, are being asked to do all the work, while we are but a small percentage of the local climate problem. The Herald had to look at this aspirational plan through a citizen’s eye- and wonder why. Here is our story.
The Real Story – A Column by Dirk Knudsen; Hillsboro resident- 6 Decades
Hillsboro has released two major climate documents in the past year: a Community Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan and a Climate Resiliency Plan (2025). Together, they paint an ambitious picture: compost, conserve water, build shade, drive less, and prepare for hotter summers, smoke, and floods.
The Numbers Don’t Lie –
In the plan, we find conclusions that the residents of Hillsboro produce ~600,000 MT (Metric Tons) of CO₂e per year.
But there is no mention in the hundreds of pages of data and reporting that the City completed of the fact that:
- Intel, via its recent permit (DEQ Permit, 2024), is permitted to produce up to 1.7 million MT (Metric Tons) per year.
- Data Centers (≈900 Mega Watts) based on currently built and planned facilities~ will be responsible for 1.58 million MT (Metric Tons) per year (location-based grid power).
What the City did do was lump all the Industrial users into one category, as seen below in blue. The fact is that the DEQ reported much larger numbers in terms of metric tons of carbon being produced by Intel in 2022.
The new Intel permit allows the company to put off up to 1.7 Million Metric tons, dwarfing the previous permit allowances.
Bottom line: Together, Intel and the server farms dwarf households and small businesses. Yet in Hillsboro’s official planning, those industrial loads are reduced to a footnote — or subtracted entirely with paper offsets.
The Herald Asked the City
The Herald posed a question to Robin Straughn, Sustainability & Resiliency Manager:
“Based on DEQ data, Intel’s Ronler Acres and Aloha campuses emitted ~302,191 short tons of CO₂e in 2022. That’s nearly double what the Climate Plan attributes to the entire industrial sector. Where did the contributory numbers come from in the report? Did Parametrix (City Consulting Firm) consider Intel and its impacts? How can we have an effective climate plan if we aren’t accurate about what’s happening in our community?”
“Our Community GHG Inventory follows current protocols, lists data sources, and indicates the accuracy of each data set, as outlined in Appendix B. The available data that we have is listed here, is not specific to any one company, and is listed in metric tons. Note that emissions from industrial businesses may fall into any of the sector categories that we have included in our inventory.”
Market-Based vs Location-Based: The Gap
The City’s market-based accounting makes Intel and the data centers look nearly carbon-free — while location-based accounting (what the grid actually emits) shows their actual footprint. Market-based accounting allows a large polluter, such as Intel or a data center, to purchase renewable energy credits and be exempt from the CO2 and other pollutants they emit into the atmosphere.
This is the core blind spot in Hillsboro’s climate planning. By using “on paper” numbers, the City all but erases the industries that shape our climate future.
Intel’s Offset in Trees and Farmland
To understand the scale of Intel’s pollution, consider its DEQ permit allowing 1.7M MT of CO₂e per year:
Trees Needed: It would take about 57 million trees absorbing carbon for an entire year to offset Intel’s annual maximum. That’s more than all the trees in Washington County combined.
Farmland Needed: At ~2.5 MT of CO₂e absorbed per acre per year, Intel would need 680,000 acres of farmland or forest preserved just to offset one year’s emissions. That’s more than 1,000 square miles — nearly the size of the entire Portland metro region.
And this doesn’t count the 20,000 daily commutes by Intel’s workforce into Ronler Acres — which adds another ~50,000 MT CO₂e each year, about 10% of all Hillsboro households’ driving emissions.
👉 Even if Intel buys every REC on the market, the fact remains: this carbon still comes off their stacks, here in Hillsboro. Data Centers will run similar or even higher numbers when the data all comes in.
The Climate Resiliency Plan: More of the Same
The City of Hillsboro Climate Resiliency Plan (July 2025) warns of hotter summers, increased wildfire smoke, and worsening floods, emphasizing the importance of shade trees, resilience hubs, solar-ready buildings, Firewise education, and household water conservation. All important. But the elephant is still missing: Intel’s permitted 1.7M MT of greenhouse gases, and server farms drawing more power than all residents combined. The drivers of our climate risks are largely left unnamed, as if they don’t exist here.
The Alarm
If we continue down this road:
- By 2030, Hillsboro will have 25+ data centers.
- Intel’s fabs will still be permitted for 1.7M MT CO₂e annually.
- Residents will still be told to “do their part,” while the fundamental drivers remain untouchable.
We cannot meet climate goals by masking, hiding, or ignoring the elephant in the room. Intel and the data centers must be part of the solution — not written out of the problem. We must not pretend in our hard-fought climate plans and policies that they do not exist.
The Herald suggests that we always treat our corporate partners as we treat our citizens — and that we expect the same from both. Commitment by all of us — corporations and people — must be reflected in our policies and climate resiliency plans. If we fail to do that, to address it, and to bake that equitable treatment into aspirational plans like this, then we fail. The climate fails. In the end, this plan was a valiant effort. But why does it not include a real-world reckoning of our biggest polluters? Why does it leave out the very forces driving our local crisis? Those unanswered questions should give us all pause.
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Well at least those big firms pay a ton in taxes!
(It’s sarcasm– they barely pay a dime.)
Yes- your point is spot on. We are really struggling the last few years to find the value of all we have given up!
Two years after the Grand Bargain, Washington County launched its Wood Stove Exchange Program asking residents to do their part to curb emissions. During discussions around SB2, local representatives spoke about their efforts to initiate electronics recycling programs so residents could do their part.
Even the most progressive Washington County residents are more inclined to get behind these efforts when they see the agencies and politicians behind them exercising some degree of consistency in their application. Every time the city and county welcome a new facility using more electricity that 120,000 residents, I’m less convinced that my neighbors’ slash piles and wood-fired cast-iron heat sources are going anywhere anytime soon.
Yah, “do as I say, but all of my political donors and their companies don’t have to” – not really inspiring at the neighborhood level.
Fantastic article, Dirk!!!