Calculating impacts of fracking proppants through the Port of Olympia

Fracking proppants (or fracking sands) are injected into oil and gas fields to enhance recovery of fossil fuels. What are costs and benefits of this process? Manufactured fracking proppants are imported from China through the Port of Olympia to the Bakken oil fields. Scope 3 impacts include carbon due to manufacturing and transporting proppants, fracking operations, and burning the fuels produced. These are not considered by the Port of Olympia, which focuses on Scope 1 and Scope 2 impacts. We calculate select Scope 3 impacts of these fracking proppants, to generate a more complete dataset for evaluating costs and benefits of Port operations. Our calculations may serve to inform future decisions about cargoes at the Port of Olympia. Business goals include financial sustainability, environmental stewardship, and community benefit. This work may assist other Ports and businesses in aligning practices with goals.