Chasing Chimera Theater Trailer

The existential crisis of climate chaos offers two paths we can take. We can make dramatic changes that meaningfully reduce carbon emissions. Or we can accept the fossil fuel industry’s self-serving climate solutions—renewable diesel, hydrogen, renewable natural gas, biofuels, carbon capture and storage and carbon offsets. Chasing Chimeras: The Lure of Deceptive Climate Solutions tells stories of people living in the crosshairs of these proposals, working to expose the dangers that these projects pose to their lives, homes, communities and the planet. In contrast to fossil fuel industry solutions, the documentary examines the need to implement verified and trusted renewable energy sources (wind, solar and geothermal), energy conservation and nature-based carbon capture and storage solutions that take advantage of natural carbon sinks such as old growth forests and wetlands.

Chasing Chimeras focuses on environmental justice and climate impacts these so-called green energy projects are having on the communities neighboring these ventures. We start in Portland, Oregon, where the community nearly shut down Houston-based Zenith Energy’s massive oil-by-rail operation along the Willamette River. But when Zenith promised to switch to shipping so-called renewable diesel in five years, the city granted a permit that it had previously denied. Moving on to San Francisco Bay’s Refinery Corridor, we see two massive oil refineries converting to renewable diesel. Back in Oregon, we tell the story of another Houston-based company, NXT Clean Fuels’ plan to industrialize prime farmland along the Columbia River Estuary, by building a massive renewable diesel refinery. These explorations show how city, state and federal governments and regulatory agencies are swayed by the fossil fuel industry’s self-promotion as purveyors of clean, low-carbon energy. Chasing Chimeras scrutinizes how state and federal programs promote and fund renewable diesel, biogas and hydrogen development, while disincentivizing the adoption of proven climate solutions.