Skamokawa, Washington?!? Why?

We have chosen the Lower Columbia River because this area is currently facing multiple, enormous fossil fuel projects.  Huge infrastructural decisions loom in this beautiful, critical nursery for salmon throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The most serious proposals come in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) proposals in Astoria and Bradwood, Oregon (across the river from the Convergence site in Washington). Four proposals would seek to import vast quantities of natural gas in a super-cooled, liquid state. The liquid methane would be converted to gaseous form, and sent via new pipeline to the rest of the West Coast, particularly California.  Each proposal would export more gas than the entire State of Oregon or Washington use on an average day.

Community members have been actively battling against this enormous new fossil fuel infrastructure, which threatens to seriously undermine the public safety, quality of life, and environmental integrity of the Columbia River and nearby communities. The Convergence will help to articulate solutions and alternatives to these destructive proposals and support locals as they attempt to prevent the Northwest from becoming a throughway for the next generation of foreign fossil fuels.

Most importantly, we will use these crucial local issues as a window to the larger problems of fossil fuel addiction and climate change. Four LNG proposals are accompanied by two large gasified coal proposals, natural gas-fired power plants, and huge ethanol facilities in the Lower Columbia River – all of which will continue to worsen the growing climate change problem. LNG, in particular, is problematic because the steps of extracting, liquefying, shipping, and regasifying the methane make this form of natural gas in its overall “life cycle” almost as dirty as gasified coal. Sources of LNG include Peru, Indonesia, and Russia, where serious human rights and environmental issues remain unresolved in the “upstream” links of the LNG supply chain.

By bringing people to the Lower Columbia River (we will be close to the proposed Bradwood LNG site across the river), we hope to draw attention to the major infrastructural decisions being made right now to buy into fossil fuels for the next 20-40 years. The area is beautiful, rugged, and rich in natural resources that could provide the foundation for a more sustainable future – a strong counter-example to the destructive life cycle of the liquefied natural gas industry.