OVERVIEW of the proposed Methanol Project including Pipeline, Refinery, and Export
(This is the original home page "as is", not updated with current "denied" status.)
Northwest Innovation Works (NWIW), a limited-liability company controlled by the Chinese government, wants to build the largest methanol (a volatile petrochemical) refinery in the world (about as large as all seven U.S. methanol refineries combined) on the Columbia River in the small town of Kalama, Washington (pop. 2700) despite never having built or operated a methanol facility. Methane (a potent greenhouse gas, GHG) hydraulically fractured (What is fracking?) in B.C. and the Rockies would be transported across the entire state by a 300-mile long Williams pipeline and a new 3.1-mile lateral pipeline through historic Mt. Pleasant Cemetery and local homeowners' private property (seized by eminent domain), converted to methanol (in a process never before used industrially at this scale), and exported in super-tankers through the Columbia River estuary to China where it would be burned as transportation fuel, used to make plastics, or sold on the open market.
Sidewalk protest during Gov. visit, Fruit Valley, 2018-04-16. Photo credit: Mark Keely
If built this refinery would be a top polluter and massive fracked fossil-gas guzzler using more "natural" gas than all other industrial users in WA combined. This single refinery would use more gas than 1/3 the entire state of WA does now, that's 2½ times all the gas Seattle and Portland use combined. It would emit a staggering 12 million tons of carbon pollution to the atmosphere every year.
(See FACTS with links to sources.)
Peoples Climate March, Kalama, 2017-04-29. Photo credit: Rick Rappaport
This is NOT a "not in my backyard" protest. This massive polluter should not be built ANYWHERE. We need to REDUCE our use of fossil fuels, keep them in the ground! Grow green energies NOW -- wind, solar, geothermal, tidal power -- these are sustainable ways to power the earth. Renewable energy is the fastest growing job sector. The U.S. must not let this opportunity for economic justice pass by.
Roben White introducing climate science youth activist Cambria Keely at the Rally at
Camp Kalama, along the Kalama River, 2019-05-18. Photo credit: Sally Keely
This refinery would obligate Washington state to decades of fossil fuel infrastructure and consumption, contribute substantially to global heating, use vast amounts of fresh water, pollute our air and river, harm salmon, take local residents' private property through eminent domain (for corporate not public gain), and expose the people of the northwest to health and safety risks. This is an extremely destructive proposal all for 192 jobs (few from Cowlitz County), profits to China, and more plastics clogging our oceans. Not worth the risks!
Peoples Climate March, Kalama, 2017-04-29. Photo credit: Rick Rappaport
Say NO to methanol. Don't let our magnificent
Columbia River estuary become the new Gulf Coast.
Protect the Pacific Northwest that we love!
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