CASE STUDY: Portland and Western

Since 2007, Pac/West has been retained by the Portland and Western Railroad to provide government affairs, lobbying and community outreach services. Our activities have included arranging local meetings with community leaders and local elected officials to discuss P & W rail service, as well as advocating on behalf of the organization in the legislature on issues of transportation infrastructure and taxation.

Most recently, Pac/West played a critical role in securing legislative approval of Connect Oregon, the only state program which finances non-highway transportation infrastructure projects. Our team followed that success by assisting P&W through the multiple round project selection process. Pac/West, in a strategic partnership with the state, has been successful in procuring at least seven Connect Oregon projects for P & W. These projects are designed to promote economic development by creating the transportation capacity necessary for new heavy industrial and manufacturing opportunities.

In addition, we helped legislate a locomotive exemption from the ethanol fuel blend requirements that apply to motor vehicles. Later, after a subsequent bill passed, we were tracking the rule making process when we discovered the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) trying to overstep the authority granted to it under the new legislation – an effort that would have essentially eliminated the exemption. In response, the Pac/West lobby team developed an aggressive strategy that succeeded in maintaining the exemption: the DEQ ultimately signed a letter committing to not regulate, or consider attempting to regulate, locomotives until after their authority expires. This provided our client with the certainty that there would be no disruption of their fuel supply or spike in fuel costs because of the new law.