Several years ago NEXT Energy (now NXT) proposed to build a renewable diesel refinery and rail yard at Port Westward, a spectacular point of land protruding into the Columbia River Estuary near the town of Clatskanie. The proposal was enthusiastically supported by the Port of Columbia County and some business interests in Clatskanie and vehemently opposed by farmers and other community members who saw this type of industrialization as totally incompatible with the region's farmland and culture. For awhile it looked like NXT's effort was sputtering. But now things are heating up.
On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Dan Serres, Advocacy Director for Columbia Riverkeeper, about how farmers and other community members are reaching out to the rest Oregon to support their struggle to prevent NXT from displacing farming, degrading local water resources, and disrupting the communities of Port Westward and Clatskanie.
For more information on NXT at Port Westward
Photo by: Paloma Ayala
- KBOO