Northwest Innovation Works wants to build the world’s biggest refinery to create methanol from fracked gas in Kalama, WA. It would use more fracked gas each day than all of the power plants in Washington combined, and ship the methanol overseas to be burned as fuel or to make plastics. At any given time, up to 72 million gallons of the highly flammable liquid would be stored on-site in an earthquake liquefaction zone. The refinery would emit more than 1 million tons of greenhouse gases from the smokestacks alone—and emit up to 7 million tons when “upstream” methane leakage is considered.

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) is building a massive fracked gas facility on the Tacoma Tideflats, in Medicine Creek Treaty Territory. If completed, this facility would lock us into decades of fossil fuel use, threaten local health and safety, and place a huge financial burden on PSE residential customers who will only see a fraction of the benefit.

Leading the fight to protect our communities and the Salish Sea is the Puyallup Tribe (taking legal action as a sovereign government), individual tribal members, and groups like the Water Warrior Movement who perform ceremonies, host community gatherings, apply pressure on decision-makers, and remind us all to stay prayerful.

Standing with the Puyallup, local tribes have signed a letter opposing the LNG project and its lack of meaningful consultation, over 80 environmental and social justice organizations have signed letters of opposition, and tens of thousands of individuals have signed petitions or submitted public comments.

Construction of Puget Sound Energy’s LNG facility began several years ago, despite not having all the necessary permits and despite the lack of legally mandated tribal consultation. Puget Sound Energy has engaged in the practice of “build first, ask questions later” while the City of Tacoma, the board of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, and Governor Inslee, have ignored formal Stop Work Requests by the Puyallup Tribe, a sovereign nation, and massive public outcry for more oversight.

Legal appeals have been filed by both the Puyallup Tribe and by Earthjustice, representing environmental and health organizations, challenging the permit approved in December 2019 by the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. The Agency’s decision has received widespread criticism for its lack of consultation with the Puyallup Tribe, use of outdated science and scenarios that the Washington Attorney General called “fictional”. This type of controversy has been present in every step of the permit process.

Puget Sound Energy would be allowed to start using the facility as soon as construction is complete. This fight is not over — join us in the fight to stop the Tacoma LNG facility.