A massive renewable diesel refinery along the Columbia River needs to obtain yet another major federal permit before it can begin construction.
In 2024, 1000 Friends of Oregon – a land use policy watchdog – and Hood River-based Columbia Riverkeeper filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers “illegally” greenlit construction for the planned refinery, allowing it to bypass a permit usually required when a company or local government intends to alter Army Corps civil works.
The Army Corps is now walking back that greenlight.
FILE - The Columbia Pacific Bio-Refinery seen in the distance in the Port Westward Industrial Park, Clatskanie, Ore., May 30, 2025. NEXT Renewable Fuels has also proposed a refinery at the industrial park
Alejandro Figueroa / OPB
NXTClean Fuels, also known as NEXT Renewable Fuels, is a Houston-based company proposing to build a $2.5 billion refinery outside Clatskanie at Port Westward, a small industrial park with deep-water access to the Columbia River.
When fully operational, the refinery would be able to crank out up to 50,000 barrels a day, or about 750 million gallons a year, of sustainable jet fuel and renewable diesel made with fish grease, animal tallow, used cooking oil and other oils from agricultural crops like soybeans and corn.
Renewable diesel is chemically similar to petroleum-based fuels, which makes it compatible with traditional fossil fuel engines.
NEXT says the Oregon facility would generate $45 million per year in local and state tax revenue once in operation and create 3,500 construction jobs and 240 jobs during operation. Local elected officials and union groups have expressed support for the project.
Some local residents, farmers and environmental groups have long opposed the refinery, however, saying the facility could damage a system of dikes and levees that controls flooding in the area and that could disrupt nearby working farms. They’ve also raised concerns that the facility could pollute the Columbia River.
At issue with the most current federal lawsuit was a letter the Army Corps sent to NEXT in 2022. In that letter, the Army Corps determined NEXT did not need a federal permit usually required when a developer intends to disrupt or alter Army Corps civil works projects – in this case, the levees built by the Corps.
During the construction of its refinery, NEXT plans to bring in heavy equipment and building materials via barge to a dock at Port Westward. It will then move those materials to the construction site using trucks. This requires those trucks to drive on a road that sits atop a levee, according to the complaint filed by Columbia Riverkeeper and 1000 Friends of Oregon.
Audrey Leonard, a staff attorney at Columbia Riverkeeper, said those heavy trucks could damage the levee.
“It [the levee] really separates all of that area – homes, energy infrastructure, and farmland – from the Columbia River,” Leonard said. “And because it’s so old and because it sits underneath the road, it has degraded over time. It’s a real concern for people who live out there that rely on this levee.”
In August, a U.S. District judge filed a 23-page opinion, saying the nonprofits have a legal standing to proceed with their claims in federal court, and denying the Army Corps’ motion to dismiss the case.
Shortly after, the Army Corps filed a motion to stay the case, giving it time to go back and reconsider its earlier decision.
Developers with NEXT describe the opposing environmental groups as “anti-developmentist.” They say the court challenges are part of the group’s “standard playbook” and that they’ve worked to comply with federal and state regulations.
Now that the Army Corps has reversed its decision, NEXT will have to submit an application that the Corps will then have to review. The Corps will then decide whether construction will have any negative impacts on the levee.
Last summer, Columbia Riverkeeper filed a separate lawsuit claiming a water quality certification the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality issued to NEXT was “legally deficient.” That case is still pending.
Developers with NEXT have told OPB they are close to breaking ground on the project, but they keep pushing the date.
The refinery still needs to clear a few more permits, including an environmental impact assessment from the Army Corps. But that federal agency has pushed the release date of its own assessment at least twice.
The Corps now expects to release a draft impact assessment in early 2026. Then a public hearing will be scheduled.
