Washington is better off without a methanol plant

The demise of a proposed methanol plant in the port of Kalama is a step forward for Southwest Washington.

Northwest Innovation Works, a Chinese government-backed company, announced last week that it is ending its seven-year efforts to build the $ 2.3 billion project. The decision came after years of wrangling with government regulators that highlighted the difficulty in defining the parameters of a green economy.

That difficulty is reflected in the changing stance of Governor Jay Inslee, a passionate green energy advocate, who originally backed the proposal because company officials said it would help reduce China’s production and consumption of coal.

By 2019, Inslee had changed course: “The age of consequences is just around the corner. The growing threat of climate change and emerging science about the harmful effects of natural gas production and distribution mean that we must focus all of our efforts on developing clean, renewable and fossil fuel sources. “

Proponents of the project, which included Cowlitz County, the Port of Kalama, and several Cowlitz County’s lawmakers, were quick to condemn last week’s decision. They blamed the onerous regulation and excessive government interference while pointing out the 200 jobs that would have been created.

This criticism is out of place. Intensive state control is required, particularly with regard to the fossil infrastructure, which would change the region for decades. Deception by Northwest Innovation Works officials demonstrates the need for rigorous scrutiny.

If there were assurances that the methanol would actually offset China’s coal consumption, the benefits would be clear. But, according to documents received by Oregon Public Broadcasting, Northwest Innovation Works told potential investors that the company intended to burn the methanol as fuel for transportation and production. This contradicts what they have told state regulators.

Claiming that the methanol was being used in plastics allowed the company to bypass the state’s strict process for assessing the location of power plants. The revelation that the truth could be something else altogether challenged the company’s motives and sincerity.

That ultimately led to the project’s demise. When faced with critical questions about the facts of the proposal, company officials folded their hands instead of proceeding with their bluff.

According to the proposal, the project would have taken natural gas from Canada and converted it into methanol. The methanol would be shipped to China to make olefins – compounds used in fabrics and contact lenses to iPhones and medical devices. The refinery on the banks of the Columbia River would be the largest fracked gas-to-methanol refinery in the world – a distinction that certainly requires detailed analysis.

This led to a process in which various permits were issued and then withdrawn. At the end of 2019, the state environment ministry rightly ordered an environmental review, which company officials hoped to avoid.

Brett VandenHeuvel, director of conservation group Columbia Riverkeeper, said at the time, “The company continues to rely on this very dubious claim that its methanol will replace dirtier methanol made from coal. There is simply no justification for this. The Institute for Ecology is doing its job. “

That mission is to protect Washington’s people, the environment and the economy, rather than taking the claims of a multinational company at face value.

In the long term, the people of southwest Washington will be better off without a dubious methanol plant in their midst.

The Columbian is a family-owned newspaper based in Vancouver, Washington.