Thanks to those who stood up, used lawsuits and pressure on our legislators to end this debacle. If we are going to get to a clean energy future, we need to end the continued expansion of products and jobs that rely on them. Then there were the possible effects of shipping disasters. We are going to end up paying for this choice in higher costs of plastics we continue to use, but there is no free lunch.
A company backed by the Chinese government on Friday ended its seven-year effort to build one of the world’s largest methanol plants along the Columbia River in southwestern Washington, following a series of regulatory setbacks and a long debate over its environmental footprint. Northwest Innovation Works proposed a $2.3 billion project to take fracked natural gas from Canada and convert it into methanol, which it would then ship to China to make ingredients for plastics used in everything from iPhones to clothing to medical devices. The state Department of Ecology denied a key permit for the project in January, saying it would create too much pollution and have negative effects on the shoreline. On Friday, the company notified the Port of Kalama it was terminating its lease, saying the regulatory environment had become “unclear and unpredictable.” Gene Johnson reports. (Associated Press)
https://www.knkx.org/post/company-drops-plan-23b-methanol-plant-southwest-washington
Filed under: Environmental Activism, Environmental Protection | Tagged: Environmental Protection |
