China is looking offshore for cleaner, cheaper chemical feedstocks. Northwest Innovation Works, or NWIW, an international consortium of oil and chemical companies, aims to build in Washington state nearly $7 billion worth of methanol plants along the Columbia River to serve the Chinese market.
Touted by Washington state officials, including the governor and port directors, as “one of the most innovative clean-energy manufacturing projects in the nation,” NWIW’s proposal to build a major methanol facility at each of the Kalama, St. Helens and Tacoma ports represents the largest-ever U.S. investment by a Chinese-led group, said Gov. Jay Inslee (D) at a September visit to the Port of Kalama.