Two environmental groups are casting doubts over the financial management of the company behind a massive renewable diesel refinery proposal along the Columbia River.
Hood River-based Columbia Riverkeeper and Portland-based Northwest Environmental Defense Center released a three-page memo that claims NXTClean Fuels, also known as NEXT Renewable Fuels, a Houston-based company, has failed to pay corporate taxes, owes millions to creditors and investors and has defaulted payments on a property it purchased in Columbia County.
OPB independently confirmed these claims.
FILE- The Columbia Pacific Bio-Refinery in the distance in the Port Westward Industrial Park, Clatskanie, Ore., May 30, 2025.
Alejandro Figueroa / OPB
The groups have sent a letter to Gov. Tina Kotek and Secretary of State Tobias Read asking the governor to withdraw her support for the project and Read to open an investigation on the companies ability to do business in Oregon.
Luke Harkins, a spokesperson for Kotek, told OPB the governor’s office is still reviewing the letter.
NEXT did not respond to OPB’s request for comment.
NEXT has secured several state permits, but still needs to clear a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The troubles that appear to be clouding the future of the planned Clatskanie-area refinery may not be isolated. The Oregonian/ OregonLive recently reported NEXT backed out of another biofuel project in Lake County claiming it couldn’t “power the plant in a cost effective way.”
Efforts to build a biofuels refinery on the lower Columbia River date back more than a decade. The river has long attracted ambitious proposals for energy terminals. There were once more than a dozen proposals for coal and oil terminals in the Northwest, nearly all of which have fizzled out.
A massive renewable diesel refinery in Columbia County
NEXT is 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.
NEXT developers state on the project’s website 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 permanent ones. Local and state elected officials, the bipartisan Oregon Coastal Caucus and business and union groups have expressed support for the project.
Some local residents, farmers and environmental groups have long opposed the controversial refinery. They argue the facility could damage a delicate system of dikes and levees that control flooding in the area and disrupt local working farms. They’ve also raised concerns the facility could pollute the Columbia River
NEXT’s corporate status in question
Columbia Riverkeeper and the Northwest Environmental Defense Center have long opposed the project. Among a laundry list of findings, the two groups say NEXT, a company registered in Delaware as NEXT Renewable Fuels Inc. and NEXT Renewable Fuels Oregon LLC, has lost or is in the process of losing its corporate status and may no longer even be recognized as a legal corporation.
That’s because both registered businesses collectively owe more than $428,000 in taxes to the state of Delaware, as records reviewed by OPB confirm.
The Delaware Division of Corporations lists NEXT Renewable Fuels Inc. status as “void” or “tax delinquent” and NEXT Renewable Fuels Oregon LLC as “cease good standing.”
“My read of what’s going on here is that they are in violation of Delaware law by continuing to apply for [state] permits and holding themselves up as a legitimate business actor,” said Audrey Leonard, a senior staff attorney at Columbia Riverkeeper.
Leonard said the nonprofit asked the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office over whether NEXT has legal authority to conduct business in the state of Oregon.
Tess Seger, a spokesperson for Secretary Read, said his office is reviewing the nonprofits’ claims.
Foreclosure pending, lawsuit filed
In late 2020, NEXT purchased a 25.5-acre lot south of Port Westward for $3.7 million, according to Columbia County property records. But the company has failed to pay more than $3.6 million on overdue payments and interest, according to those records. The company was recently sent a notice of default and election to sell letter, records show.
The property is now scheduled to be sold at public auction Nov. 20, according to the notice OPB obtained from the Columbia County Clerk’s Office.
NEXT is also a named defendant in a lawsuit filed in the Columbia County court in early September. LJA Engineering Inc., a Houston-based civil and environmental engineering consultant, is accusing NEXT of breach of contract for failing to pay $601,974. NEXT hired LJA to prepare a draft environmental impact statement the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently reviewing, according to court documents.
Leonard said this all points to a pattern of questionable business practices that don’t align with the promises the company has made.
In late 2025, Kotek submitted a letter supporting the proposed refinery when the U.S. Army Corps was seeking public comment on the project’s environmental impact statement.
Leonard said the governor withdrawing her support would signal to local residents Kotek’s behind them and doesn’t support “shady business practices.”
“Her letter is based on the economic promise that NEXT has claimed it will bring to the community. And based on the new information, that economic promise is looking less and less likely,” Leonard said. “So the facts upon which she bases her letter of support are no longer true.”
