Only 30 miles from Vancouver, in Kalama, a Chinese government-backed company Northwest Innovation Works wants to build the world’s largest fracked-gas-to-methanol refinery. NWIW plans to ship the methanol to China to make plastics and use as fuel.
This plant will use 320 million cubic feet of fracked gas every day — far more than every gas-fired power plant in Washington combined — and store 72 million gallons of flammable methanol on the banks of the Columbia River, on soil with moderate-to-high risk of liquefying in an earthquake.
Overwhelming public outcry against the methanol refinery when NWIW first proposed it for Tacoma drove them to site it in Kalama, a much smaller town. NWIW has applied for millions of dollars in tax breaks and $2 billion in federal loan guarantees, so U.S. taxpayers are on the hook for construction and to bail them out if it fails.
Public comments are being accepted until Dec. 28. Please contact Gov. Inslee (360-902-4111), the Washington Department of Ecology (360-407-6300) and the Port of Kalama (360-673-2325) to let them know the methanol refinery in Kalama must be stopped.
