Tacoma LNG: A quarter-billion-dollar burden
Local ratepayers are footing the bill – don’t we deserve a say?
Puget Sound Energy (PSE), a foreign-owned gas company is building an industrial energy project in the heart of Tacoma—and it’s paid for by higher prices on your utility bill.
If Puget Sound Energy (PSE) gets its way, the shoreline of Commencement Bay will soon be home to a big liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex. Tacoma will have to deal with another gas pipeline through the city, dangerous new maritime fueling operations near local homes and businesses, and a major polluting industrial site to super-cool and pressurize fracked gas.
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What you need to know
- The project will cost a whopping $275 million, that you will pay for. Local ratepayers will be able to use about 2% of the gas from the project, but they are expected to cover 46% of the cost in the form of higher prices on their utility bills.
- LNG is notoriously hazardous. A similar facility in rural eastern Washington exploded in 2014 with a blast so powerful it was felt by people six miles away. It sent shrapnel flying, injured workers, and polluted the region.
- Siting an LNG facility in an urban area is incredibly risky. Maybe that’s why the project backers have been hiding the safety studies from the public.
- The LNG project is already under construction on the ancestral homeland of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, in an area that is still important to our economy and culture. And yet the Tribe was never consulted about this dangerous project on our homeland – not by PSE and not by the City of Tacoma.
- The process has been a gross violation of the Puyallup Tribe’s legal rights—and it is an insult to everyone who cares about the future of Tacoma and the Salish Sea.
References and further reading:
- Puyallup Tribe of Indians: No LNG
- 350 Tacoma: What’s Wrong with Puget Sound Energy’s Fracked Gas Project
- Sierra Club: Air Agency to issue major report on Tacoma LNG
- The News Tribune: Wrongs must be righted at Tacoma LNG plant
How you can help
- In July, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency released a preliminary determination to issue permits for Tacoma LNG. This determination was wrongly based on outdated assumptions and flawed science.
- Tell PSCAA to do the right thingby denying the Tacoma LNG permit. Click the button below to submit an email to the board.
Not sure what to say? Here’s a sample email that you can copy or use as inspiration.
I am a Puget Sound Energy ratepayer who is concerned about the Tacoma LNG facility and its alarmingly flawed reviews. Not only do we have to foot the bill for this environmentally-destructive project, but LNG is notoriously hazardous and our safety is knowingly being compromised.
I urge you to do the right thing by denying the facility’s permit until a legitimate review is conducted that honors the Puyallup Tribe’s legal rights to consultation, evaluates the many changes to the project, and fairly weighs the science of methane leaks from fracked gas infrastructure.
