Columbia Riverkeeper is headed to PIELC! Find us at the following panels:

Greenwashing on the Columbia River: Stopping the NEXT Refinery

• A company called NEXT wants to build a massive “renewable” diesel refinery on the Columbia River. It’s a dirty deal for climate, salmon, and local farmers. Come learn from 4 attorneys about the legal and grassroots tactics used to fight the refinery’s development at the local, state, and federal levels.

Nukes across the Columbia? Small Modular Nuclear Reactors in Washington to Power Oregon’s Data Centers

• This panel will address the Big Tech surge to develop small modular nuclear reactors to meet the voracious energy demands of data centers, AI, crypto-currencies and cloud computing. The plan: build SMNRs in the Hanford vicinity of Washington to power data centers in Oregon. This would handily circumvent the 1980 voter-mandated law which bars new nuclear plant construction within Oregon without a voter reversal and the establishment of a federally licensed waste repository. Discussion will delve into the plan, treaty rights, economic and safety issues associated with SMNRs and rationality of feeding AI’s extreme energy appetite.

Conference: February 28-March 2, 2025

University of Oregon campus, Eugene, OR

For more information, please visit https://www.pielc.org/