NEXT Updates Timeline, Budget for Fuel Plant

Agriculture/Food Processing Residues nonfield crop, BioChemicals/Renewable Chemicals, BioRefineries/Renewable Fuel Production, Business News/Analysis, Feedstocks, Field/Orchard/Plantation Crops/Residues, Funding/Financing/Investing, Green Jobs, Not Agriculture, Oregon, Sustainability

June 22, 2021

Print This Article Share it With Friends

by Anna Del Savio (Pamplin Media Group/Columbia County Spotlight) NEXT Renewable Fuels now aiming for 2024 opening for Port Westward fuel production facility. READ MORE

Port Westward Renewable Diesel Project (Oregon.gov)

Renewable diesel fuel refinery will be union built and operated (NWLaborPress.org)

Controversial biofuel plant planned on 118 acres of wetlands (Pamplin Media)

Excerpt from NWLaborPress.org: NEXT Renewable Fuels—a Houston-based company form-ed in 2016 to develop a renewable diesel refinery on the West Coast—has renewed its commitment to employ union labor on a proposed $1.6 billion plant outside Clatskanie, Oregon—both while it’s under construction and when it begins operating.

The facility is to be constructed on a 90-acre parcel leased for 30 years from the Port of Columbia County at Port Westward Industrial Park in Columbia County. It would employ 800 workers during construction and more than 200 workers once it’s operating.

In 2019 NEXT Renewable Fuels first signed memoranda of understanding with Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council and the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, and a separate card check agreement with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555. In March 2021 the company announced that those two agreements have been renewed. For building trades unions, once a general contractor is selected to build the facility, the next step would be to negotiate a project labor agreement (PLA) spelling out the commitment to use union labor in construction.

Meanwhile, in its agreement with UFCW Local 555, NEXT Renewable Fuels commits to remain neutral in any future union organizing efforts for operating staff at the plant, and allow union organizers to hold meetings on site during nonworking hours. Local 555, in return, commits not to disparage NEXT Renewable Fuels or picket on the site.

…

When the plant begins operating in 2024, NEXT Renewable Fuels says it will convert used cooking oils, animal tallow, seed oil and soy oil into what it calls “Advanced Green Diesel,” also known as renewable diesel.

…

The plant will also produce a small amount of bio-derived propane and naphtha. Efird said the raw materials and the finished product will move in and out of the port by ship, while bits and pieces used in production will arrive by rail. READ MORE

Comments are closed.

Advanced BioFuels USA