NEXT Energy withdraws permit application after unanimous local opposition
On June 26, 2023, the Columbia County Planning Commission held a permit hearing for Houston-based NEXT Renewable Fuels, Inc.’s proposed non-conventional diesel facility at Port Westward.
Every single person at the hearing testified in opposition to NEXT. On July 14, NEXT withdrew its application.
Local farmer, Jasmine Lillich, attended the hearing:
"Our community continues to speak up against NEXT Renewables, and this time we won. If NEXT thought they would get approval from the Planning Commission, they wouldn’t have withdrawn their application. Our testimony was strong, well researched and powerful.
I was proud to testify with so many of my elders who continue to fight for the health and wellbeing of the next generation. These are the values I want to be uplifted in my community. The energy in that room was palpable. 24 of us to 0.
It’s an honor to stand alongside such beautiful humans forging a new vision for Columbia County. A vision of resiliency and a celebration of our natural resources and our agricultural heritage. We will always need food over fuel."
NEXT’s dirty, ambiguous proposal is far from a done deal. Community opposition is not going away—it’s growing.
This is yet another instance where NEXT failed to secure a necessary permit. Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals overturned NEXT’s rail yard permit last October. Oregon DEQ denied NEXT’s Clean Water Act Section 401 water quality permit twice for lack of information. NEXT still has to undertake the formal Environmental Impact Statement process with the Army Corps of Engineers to obtain a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit.
