The company proposing to build a $3.4 billion methanol production plant at the Port of Tacoma announced Tuesday morning that it is “ending development options” and terminating its lease at the port, effectively cancelling the project.
Northwest Innovation Works released a statement reporting that after two years of work and exactly two months after pausing the environmental scoping process, the company met with Port of Tacoma commissioners to terminate the lease for the former Kaiser aluminum smelter.
The company is still moving forward with two similar projects at the Port of Kalama in Washington and the Port of St. Helens in northern Oregon.
“While we do not see a way forward with the Port of Tacoma to realize this vision at this location, we remain committed to building facilities that offer a cleaner way to make products necessary for daily life, and to investing billions in local communities in the Pacific Northwest,” Vee Godley, NWIW President, said in the statement. “We thank the Port of Tacoma Commissioners and staff for their consideration and interest, as well as the many business and community members who demonstrated their support for our project. We also want to thank the people of Tacoma for their consideration of our project.”
In the statement, NWIW cites three “business considerations particular to the Port of Tacoma” for their termination of the lease: the polluted Kaiser site that was the proposed area for the plant, inadequate time to conduct an environmental analysis and the potential for zoning changes.
“Only careful planning, additional research, and the right regulatory approach would allow the development of a heavy industrial use on such a site,” the statement reads. “Developing that approach has taken longer than anticipated, and the process currently in place to resolve pending questions promises still to be a long one.”
According to Godley’s statements, NWIW estimates it would need another three years to “perform the necessary due diligence, public process, and environmental analysis.”
NWIW has come under heavy criticism for the project. Multiple public meetings held earlier this year in Tacoma drew thousands of opponents who voiced concerns over possible unknown air and water pollutants along with the massive water and electricity needs for a plant of the proposed scale.
Tacoma’s Citizens for a Healthy Bay, an organization dedicated to preserving fishable and swimmable waters around Tacoma, took a stand against the plant and rallied behind opponents.
The company insisted that the plant would bring thousands of jobs to the area and local unions voiced support for the economic benefits the plant would provide. NWIW also pointed to methanol created from natural gas as more environmentally friendly than coal-based methanol like that is found in China.
The goal of the plant was to create methanol from natural gas pumped in via pipeline. The clear, flammable substance would then be shipped to China where it would be used to make plastic-based goods.
