Renewable natural gas, enough to supply 19,000 homes each day, is produced at this plant operated by the Klickitat Public Utility District. The plant is located at a sprawling landfill operated by Republic… (Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times) 

By Hal Bernton, The Seattle Times

ROOSEVELT, Klickitat County — Two trains each day pull into this tiny hamlet tucked deep within the Columbia River Gorge. They carry more than 12 million pounds of garbage that is transferred to a fleet of trucks, which crawl up a cliff-side road full of hairpin turns to the top of an arid plateau.

There, an armada of excavators, bulldozers and compactors work to spread, crush and bury this trash.

Now, this giant landfill is the source of pipeline-quality natural gas — enough for some 19,000 homes to operate furnaces, stoves and water heaters each day.

Now, this giant landfill is the source of pipeline-quality natural gas — enough for some 19,000 homes to operate furnaces, stoves and water heaters each day.

The landfill gas is owned by the Klickitat Public Utility District, which raised some $40 million to build a processing plant to strip out gas impurities.

The production helps fuel a high-stakes political battle unfolding in Washington and elsewhere in the nation over the future of gas utilities in a century of intensifying climate change driven by the global use of fossil fuels.

Each day more than 12 million pounds of garbage is dumped, spread, compacted and finally covered with a layer of dirt at the Klickitat County landfill owned by Republic Services. It sits on a plateau… (Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times) 

A big question hanging over this industry is how to lower the carbon footprint of buildings, which in Washington currently account for more than 23% of state greenhouse gas emissions and represent the fastest-growing source.

Pacific Northwest gas officials cite the potential for greening the state’s pipeline network with landfill renewable natural gas and other low-carbon fuels that can be used for heating and other tasks. This winter, they joined in a lobbying campaign to kill a bill in the Legislature encouraging an alternative path — electrification of buildings from a grid that, under state law, must be purged of greenhouse gas pollution over next quarter century.

In Washington, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) — the state’s largest utility — is in the thick of this fight. The company is a major provider of electricity but also has a big stake in the gas industry with 26,000 miles of pipelines and some 800,000 customers.

PSE has signed a 20-year contract that by 2024 will purchase all the output from the Klickitat plant. The company leaders now champion the potential of this renewable natural gas, along with hydrogen, to help reach an “aspirational goal” of eliminating almost all carbon emissions by 2045.

This path forward would require a kind of energy revolution that could run up against significant supply constraints.

Washington’s pipeline-quality methane production from landfills makes up just 1.3% of the state’s natural gas consumption. A state Department of Commerce study found that extensive use of other organic wastes — such as sewage, dairy manure and food processing leftovers — could push production up to 5% of the state’s consumption. That could possibly climb up to 10% through gasification of wood if cost-effective processing could be developed.

Future supplies of low-carbon hydrogen are uncertain. If production is scaled up greatly, this hydrogen still would have other high-value uses besides home heating, and switching largely to this fuel would require big investments to change pipelines.

Critics in the environmental community are skeptical this vision will ever be fully realized. “This is being way oversold,” said Doug Howell, a senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club.

PSE Chief Executive Officer Mary Kipp acknowledges the way forward is full of challenges but is hopeful that technological innovation will enable the utility to pull off this transformation.

“One thing we have been really upfront on — we don’t have all the answers,” said Kipp, who took over leadership of the utility in 2019.

Legislative battles flare

The uncertainties surrounding alternative pipeline fuels have not slowed gas industry lobbying efforts to fend off legislative attempts to spur greater electrification of buildings.

In Washington state, the industry targeted a bill that initially included what would have been a first-in-the-nation, statewide ban on fossil-fuel heating in new buildings by 2030.

The bill was a priority for Gov. Jay Inslee, who has garnered a national reputation for his zeal in combating climate change.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Alex Ramel, a Democrat newcomer from northwest Washington with a background in energy conservation and environmental organizing.

With Democrats in control of the state House and Senate, Ramel was hopeful that the legislation — at least in some form — could be passed into law.

The bill would help carry out Inslee’s energy strategy for reducing almost all state carbon pollution by 2050 — a target set by the Legislature. The governor’s plan, as outlined in a state Commerce Department document released in January, includes a transition from gas to electric heating in most Washington buildings.

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