IN NOVEMBER, some Washington State residents got a letter and an accompanying brochure from an outfit called Vancouver Energy. The brochure was headlined "We Need Cleaner American Energy," and it talked up a proposed $210 million oil terminal that Tesoro Refining & Marketing Company, LLC and Savage Companies want to build at the Port of Vancouver.

"By utilizing lower-carbon Bakken crude oil in Washington State instead of the current oil used to produce fuels, we can reduce carbon emissions by approximately 1.5 million tons each year," wrote Jared Larrabee, general manager of Vancouver Energy, a company formed by Tesoro and Savage in order to develop the project. "That's equal to taking 250,000 cars off the road."

It's an appealing notion at a time when everyone wants to curb carbon emissions. The only problem? The numbers Vancouver Energy is using don't fly, according to the organizations whose studies the company cites in its pamphlet.

The brochure uses data it says came from the Washington State Department of Ecology, the California Air Resources Board, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to make a case for the terminal, saying it would bring "lower-carbon oil," replacing imported oil. But representatives from each of those entities say Vancouver Energy is misrepresenting their data.

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