As Amazon expands in eastern Oregon, regional carbon emissions soar – By Mike Rogoway (The Oregonian/OregonLive) / Sept 6, 2022
The electrical utility serving Morrow County once had some of the cleanest power in the state.
Drawing mostly on nearby hydroelectric projects on the Columbia River, power sold by the Umatilla Electric Cooperative emitted just 3% as much carbon as the statewide average.
Then Amazon came to town.
The company built a succession of large data centers in Morrow and Umatilla counties, financed partly by local tax breaks, and industrial power use in the region quadrupled. While Amazon isn’t solely responsible for the increase, the additional power use matches the annual household power consumption of 200,000 homes.
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