The fracked gas industry wants to build the world’s largest fracked gas-to-methanol refinery in Kalama, WA. Kalama lies on the Washington side of the Columbia River less than an hour north of Portland, and if constructed, the facility would threaten the health of our entire region. The proposed refinery would consume a staggering amount of fracked gas, more than all of Washington’s gas-fired power plants combined. It would convert the fracked gas to methanol, which would be shipped overseas to be burned as fuel or used as feedstock to make plastics.
In early September, the WA Department of Ecology released a new Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to address the climate impacts of the fracked gas-to-methanol refinery proposed in Kalama. This new analysis reveals what the project’s backers have long denied: that the refinery would cause more methanol to be burned as fuel in China and result in significant methane pollution from fracking. The methanol refinery would quickly become one of Washington’s most significant sources of climate-changing pollution and use more fracked gas than all of Washington’s gas-fired power plants combined.
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The climate consequences of the Kalama methanol refinery are enormous. Reports from the Stockholm Environment Institute and Sightline Institute show that Kalama methanol refinery would contribute to a significant global increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The project would generate millions of tons of greenhouse gas pollution each year, undercutting Washington’s efforts to move towards a clean energy economy.
Please take action today to stop this dangerously short-sighted climate-busting proposal.