Port Westward, owned and operated by the Port of St. Helens, is ground zero for a string of controversial fossil fuel developments, including fracked gas, coal, and oil terminals. The Port recently announced plans to renew a lease option with Northwest Innovation Works to build the world’s largest fracked gas-to-methanol refinery at Port Westward. In response Columbia Riverkeeper, along with 1000 Friends of Oregon, filed an appeal challenging Columbia County’s second attempt to open 837 acres of high-value agricultural land along the Columbia River to industrial development. The Port of St. Helens proposes doubling the size of its rural Port Westward property for fracked gas-to-methanol refineries, oil-by-rail, and other industrial development. Hundreds of people, including local farmers and small business owners, urged the county to protect farmland and salmon habitat from fossil fuel and other heavy industrial development, but so far the county is not listening.
On this episode of Locus Focus we talk about what it would mean to rural Columbia County if it becomes home to the largest methanol refinery in the world, with guests Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky, Columbia Riverkeeper's point person for opposing methanol refineries in the Northwest, along with Scott Hilgenberg, Land Use Fellow at Crag Law Center, and Columbia County Farmer Tracy Prescott MacGregor.
Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky, Senior Organizer with Columbia River, works to support community members all along the Columbia River. Jasmine led the public campaigns to stop would-be coal export terminals from polluting Oregon’s air and water and now focuses on doing the same in Southwest Washington. She is currently leading the charge against fracked gas-to-methanol refineries in Kalama, WA and Port Westward, OR.
Scott Hilgenberg joined Crag Law Center as its Land Use Legal Fellow in April 2017. Scott is a member of the Oregon and Washington state bars. He serves on the executive committee for the Real Estate and Land Use Section of the Oregon State Bar, and contributes to publications for the Administrative Law Section of the Washington State Bar Association. Scott sits on the board of directors for Housing Land Advocates, a non-profit dedicated to ensuring affordable housing in Oregon.
Tracy Prescott MacGregor and her husband have owned farmland in the Port Westward vicinity for nearly 20 years. Their farm is a just two miles from the Port Westward industrial site and the proposed rezone. Tracy raises goats and poultry and grows vegetables for the Clatskanie Farmers Market.
- KBOO