In July of this year, a group of federal, state, and city, officials, vendors, engineers and other adherents of Oregon's reputation as an environmentally "green" state, gathered at the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant in North Portland to dedicate the West Coast's first methane-powered, ONSI PC25 fuel cell power plant.

Allegorically, the fuel cell was fueled by a portion of the one million cu.ft. of methane produced daily in the plant's anaerobic digesters tanks, the "green" conscience of Portland's Environmental Services, and creative financing that laid the groundwork for the $1.3 million power plant.

Dean Marriott, director of the city's Bureau Environmental Service, said that "We think energy and the environment go hand-in-hand. Since 1990, energy efficiency projects have saved our bureau about $615,000 per year."