Amazon Drops Plans to Purchase Fracked Gas at Oregon Data Centers

In 2022, Amazon announced its intention to expand its power supply for its data centers in Morrow County, Oregon, by using fossil gas. It had planned to purchase fossil gas from the controversial GTN Xpress Pipeline, a proposed pipeline expansion that would transport fracked gas from Canada through Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.

The climate movement significantly escalated its opposition to Amazon’s plans, and to the pipeline expansion as a whole. In March 2024, a group called the Troublemakers, launched with CEF support, blocked the entrance to Amazon’s corporate headquarters in Seattle, calling for the company to cancel its plans to power its data centers with fracked gas. Three months later in June 2024, Amazon did exactly that, quietly withdrawing its application to use gas from the GTN Xpress Pipeline.

This was a highly strategic intervention by the Troublemakers. The GTN Xpress Pipeline was already facing significant financial struggles; the loss of a major customer like Amazon is a major blow to the pipeline’s chances of being built, and it may prove to be decisive. The Troublemakers plan to continue escalating against the pipeline until it is cancelled once and for all.