Despite ongoing resistance from environmental organizations and tribes regarding possible effects on the river and fish, Oregon environmental regulators granted a crucial stamp of approval to a proposed $2.5 billion biofuel refinery near the Columbia River.
At the deepwater port of Port Westward, an industrial park on the outskirts of Clatskanie in Columbia County, the NEXT Energy refinery, also known as NXTClean Fuels, intends to produce sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel. Because they are made from plants and organic waste materials like cow dung or agricultural leftovers, biofuels are regarded as renewable resources.
The Houston-based business may now proceed with the project after the Department of Environmental Quality accepted NEXT’s water quality certification on Tuesday. The refinery needs the certification indicating the last thorough state examination in order to obtain a federal permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers.
In 2021 and 2022, the state agency rejected NEXT’s certification application twice because there was not enough data to assess the permission application. More recently, the business obtained county land-use permissions in 2024 and state approvals for an air permit and removal fill permit in 2022.
Proponents praise biofuels for their capacity to lower carbon emissions as a temporary solution before the transportation industry transitions to full electrification, as recommended by climate organizations. Through fuel blending regulations that demand a specific proportion of biofuels be blended with conventional fossil fuels, nations all over the world, including the United States, individual states like Oregon, and cities like Portland, have placed bets on biofuels to lower carbon emissions from automobiles and trucks.
Concerns regarding the effects of biofuel production, storage, and transportation—such as deforestation, the displacement of food production, and the substantial greenhouse gas emissions from different biofuel sources—have been voiced by environmental groups in recent years.
Up to 50,000 barrels of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel per day, or over 750 million gallons annually, are anticipated to be produced at the Port Westward refinery. Offsite, the fuels will be transported to markets across the globe by railcar, truck, and pipeline.
This week, environmental organizations claimed that state officials gave in to pressure from the building industry, endangering the river and the health of people through potential leaks.
Michael Loch, a DEQ representative, chose not to respond to that assertion directly.
According to Loch, DEQ thoroughly examined NEXT’s application for a 401 water quality certification and concluded that the project satisfies the state’s water quality requirements.
According to NEXT, it intends to use spent cooking oil, fish grease, animal tallow, and seed oils to create the biofuels at Port Westward. According to Michael Hinrichs, a spokesman for the company, it already has a deal with a Vietnamese company to import fish grease. He added that it is in talks with other businesses for used cooking oil and animal tallows from Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan.
Oregon conservation groups contest those claims, using the company’s U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Audrey Leonard, a staff attorney with Columbia Riverkeeper, a Portland-based environmental organization dedicated to protecting the river that has opposed the project for years, said that NEXT’s documentation demonstrates that the majority of its feedstocks will be from corn and soybean oil, which are purpose-grown feedstocks with a higher carbon footprint and will be transported to the facility on long trains.
The refinery could degrade local wetlands in the event of spills from the refinery and its railyard due to accidents or a significant earthquake, according to Columbia Riverkeeper and other project opponents. They also claim the refinery could harm the water quality in the Columbia and its tributaries, including several area sloughs.
According to Leonard, the proposed refinery would be situated near to salmon habitat and valuable agriculture on unstable soil behind dikes. According to her, renewable fuels are equally combustible as fossil fuels.
Leonard said that the proposed refinery would produce renewable fuels using a lot of fracked gas, a fossil fuel, which would result in a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.The refinery’s fracked gas operations, which generate more than 1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, are permitted by NEXT’s air permit. For contrast, Intel’s two campuses are permitted to generate a total of 1.7 million tons of greenhouse emissions annually, while the average petroleum refinery releases 1.2 million tons.
Tribes in the area have also opposed the refinery in letters, claiming that it will harm juvenile salmon and other aquatic animals and deteriorate water quality.
The executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, which oversees fisheries for nearby tribes, Aja K. DeCoteau, noted that this project is a significant step backward from the years of work to improve aquatic habitat.
Other organizations have voiced their support for the project and believe it will help combat climate change by lowering pollutants and emissions.
According to Tim Miller, director of Oregon Business for Climate, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enlisting industry support to advance climate policy in Oregon, “we must do everything we can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and toxic air pollution in the short term through strategies like rapidly expanding the use of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel on our way to a zero-emission future.”
With the refinery’s water certification in hand, the Army Corps of Engineers will consider whether to grant a federal water quality permit for the project and will release a draft environmental impact statement for public review later this year.
Although these are standard and usually submitted following the acceptance of the federal permit, NEXT still has to obtain two state stormwater permits.
After purchasing a never-opened facility from Red Rock Biofuels in 2023 when that firm fell into foreclosure, the corporation is also building a second biofuel refinery near Lakeview, 100 miles east of Klamath Falls. Renewable natural gas, or RNG, will be produced at the Lakeview plant using wood waste from nearby forest thinning, logging, and wildfire management operations. The plant’s launch date has not yet been disclosed by the corporation.
Gosia Wozniacka discusses a variety of environmental topics, including climate change, environmental justice, and the switch to sustainable energy. You may contact her at 971-421-3154 or [email protected].
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