By: Ruth Sawyer, Beyond Coal Organizer
In order to stop climate change, we need to end our dependence on fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. Thankfully, Washingtonians have always been leaders in bold climate action, and coal use in the state is dramatically declining, with the potential to be fully phased out by 2025. In tandem, rapid advances in electric vehicle technology offer the promise of reduced oil use. Natural gas, however – which comes primarily from the environmentally-destructive practice of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” – is on the rise. Ending the use of fracked gas is the next big climate fight in Washington State.
Two thirds of natural gas is fracked and there’s nothing “natural” about this process or its impacts. The process of fracking involves injecting toxic chemicals into the earth, which can leak into the groundwater and contaminate our drinking water and endanger our health. After extraction, fracking continues to be deadly and environmentally-damaging-- from pipeline explosions to the greenhouse gases produced by transporting and burning it, fracked gas is destructive from extraction to consumption. Any increase in gas infrastructure will also lead to an increase in fracking operations– which is why we think it is so important to refer to all new gas projects as fracked gas projects.
Unburned fracked gas consists primarily of methane. While carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere longer than methane, methane has a much more potent warming effect. Over a 20-year period, it is 87 percent more powerful at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.
This means that when accounting for methane leaks, fracked gas has climate impacts that rival those of coal. Accounting for the upstream impacts of gas – including the methane impacts during production, processing, storage, and transmission –doubles its climate impact.
According to the International Panel of Climate Change’s report, everyone must work together to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions. If not, the planet will continue to warm, heralding environmental disasters from rising sea levels to fiercer storms, and exacerbate the effects of conflicts, famine, disease, poverty, and inequity. Now is the time to do our part and take bold action.
We would love your support in fighting new gas projects – whether it is the Kalama methanol refinery, the Tacoma LNG facility, or new gas power plants and pipelines being proposed across the state. Together, we can protect Washington’s environment and communities from this dangerous and destructive practice.