June 21, 2021: Earlier this month, Northwest Innovation Works (NWIW), backers of a controversial fossil fuel processing and export proposal in Kalama, Washington, officially abandoned its fracked gas refinery and pipeline proposal, terminating the company’s lease with the Port of Kalama. The decision comes after years of local and regional activism to stop the massive fracked gas refinery, resulting in a series of legal defeats. In early 2021, Washington state denied a key permit, citing the refinery’s significant climate and shoreline impacts. That decision followed state and federal court rejections of other permits for failing to fully analyze the project’s harm on climate, water quality, and the public interest.
In December 2020, the Washington Department of Ecology released its final study on the massive fracked gas-to-methanol refinery. Ecology found the greenhouse gas emissions from the Kalama facility itself would be significant: It would be one of the largest sources of carbon emissions in Washington (including upstream emissions, 4.8 million metric tons a year). Only one emissions source in Washington produces more greenhouse gas emissions than NWIW’s lifecycle emissions—a power plant in Centralia that is required by law to stop burning coal by 2025.
The victory over NWIW marks the latest chapter in a decade of victories over fossil fuel development in the Pacific Northwest. Following years of activism and legal actions, during which Sierra Club partnered with Tribal Nations, communities, and other nonprofits, a broad coalition defeated the nation’s largest coal and oil-by-rail terminals, both proposed along the Columbia. Sierra Club’s powerful partnerships with Coalitions including Power Past Fracked Gas, Stand Up to Oil, and Power Past Coal led victories over a dozen fracked gas pipelines, liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, coal export terminals, and oil-by-rail developments proposed in the Pacific Northwest.
Read our press release here.