It makes no sense to believe that increasing the amount of LNG, liquefied natural gas, entering Washington state by 38 percent will benefit our climate. LNG is mostly methane, a potent greenhouse gas that escapes easily. Use of LNG encourages shale-gas production by fracking.
The Chinese-backed, world’s largest methanol refinery in Kalama’s studies used a figure for escaped methane that is nowhere near the 3.2 percent to 3.5 percent level generally accepted by scientists. In an August 2019 Cornell University study in the scientific journal Biogeosciences, author Robert Howarth states that “we conclude that shale-gas production in North America over the past decade may have contributed more than half of all of the increased emissions from fossil fuels globally and approximately one-third of the total increased emissions from all sources globally over the past decade,” and called it “globally significant.”
Those trying to build the refinery have the right to write whatever they want in their literature and on their website, but reputable organizations such as Columbia Riverkeeper, Earthjustice, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sierra Club and Union of Concerned Scientists aren’t fooled and nobody else should be.
