Methanol

Fracked gas-to-methanol refineries

A company called Northwest Innovation Works proposed building two of the world’s largest fracked gas-to-methanol refineries in Kalama, Wash., and Port Westward, Ore. Not so fast. Methanol is a chemical used to make plastic or burned as a fuel. A single refinery could consume 320 million cubic feet of fracked gas per day, more than all other industrial uses in Washington combined. Each refinery would emit more than 1 million tons of greenhouse gases from the smokestacks alone—and emit up to 7 million tons when accounting for “upstream” methane leakage and “downstream” combustion of the methanol.

Kalama methanol refinery

Communities came together and defeated a massive fossil fuel export terminal! In 2021, state and federal regulators denied key permits for Northwest Innovation Works—the culmination of seven years of grassroots community organizing and legal advocacy. The project would have emitted a stunning 5 million tons of greenhouse gas annually to ship a petrochemical overseas to make plastics or burn as a dirty fuel. Residents throughout the region submitted over 25,000 public comments and petitions about the proposed methanol refinery to government officials. Here’s a snapshot of the road to victory:

After initially supporting the refinery, in May 2019, Governor Inslee announced that he “cannot in good conscience support” the methanol refinery due the pressing need to stop constructing fossil fuel infrastructure in order to combat the climate crisis.
In November 2020, a court dealt another blow to the refinery by tossing out federal permits and environmental review documents.
In January 2021, the Wash. Dept. of Ecology denied a key Shoreline Management Act permit for the Kalama methanol refinery, citing the refinery’s significant harm to our climate and the Columbia River.

Without the necessary state and federal permits, this climate-wrecking proposal no longer threatens our climate or the Columbia.

Port Westward, Ore., Methanol Refinery and Rezone

Northwest Innovation Works signed a lease option with the Port of Columbia County, Ore., to build a methanol refinery at the Port Westward property near the town of Clatskanie. The methanol refinery at Port Westward would mirror the Kalama proposal. The company has not filed permit applications. A likely roadblock for the proposal is the amount of available industrial land at Port Westward. Riverkeeper is working with farmers and Columbia County residents to fight a controversial effort to open over 800 acres of high-quality farmland near Port Westward for industrial development, including methanol and oil-by-rail terminals. We stopped the proposal before. Now we need your help to put this bad idea to bed forever. Learn more about Riverkeeper’s efforts to protect Port Westward .

Beyond Kalama and Port Westward

Methanol refineries mean more fracked gas and more pipelines. But it gets worse. Massive methanol refinery proposals would increase our region’s consumption of fracked gas and drive construction of massive new gas pipelines into the Pacific Northwest.

Why is fracked gas such a big deal? It is mostly methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Fracked gas fuels climate change and stands in the way of clean energy. So far, the methanol company has not explained how the Northwest's limited gas pipeline system could supply the methanol refineries. Gas companies could propose a major new pipeline into the Northwest to supply the methanol refineries.

VICTORY OVER MASSIVE FRACKED GAS REFINERY

Amidst strong opposition and legal defeats, developers end pursuit of world’s largest fracked gas-to-methanol refinery.