CLATSKANIE, At 11 a.m. on Nov. 20, a trustee will stand on the front steps of the Columbia County Courthouse in St. Helens and auction 25 acres of vacant land near Port Westward that NEXT Renewable Fuels bought six years ago for the refinery it said would bring 240 permanent jobs to the county.
The company has not made a payment on the land since March 2024 and owes $3,636,429.41 in principal, interest and costs, according to a notice of default recorded with the county clerk on June 25. Interest is running at 12 percent a year, or $827.37 a day.
The foreclosure is one of three debt actions against NEXT, now doing business as NXTClean Fuels, that have landed in public records this year. Together they describe a company that has stopped paying the people who sold it land, lent it money and wrote its environmental paperwork, even as Gov. Tina Kotek urged federal regulators in December to move its permit along.
The Land
NEXT bought the parcel, tax lot 8NW22-00-0030 in the Clatskanie area, in December 2020 and financed it with a trust deed to Beutler Exchange Group, which assigned the loan in November 2021 to Paula L. and Shawn M. Teevin, according to the notice. The Teevins, as beneficiaries, directed the trustee, Elevate Law Group of Lake Oswego, to foreclose. The notice lists unpaid property taxes as a second default.
The sale is a commercial foreclosure by advertisement under Oregon trust deed law, meaning no court hearing is required. The property goes to the highest cash bidder unless NEXT pays the full balance first. The notice says the amounts are subject to change and that a reinstatement quote is available from the trustee.
The Engineers
On Sept. 1, LJA Inc., the Texas engineering firm formerly known as LJA Engineering, sued NEXT in Columbia County Circuit Court for $601,974.17. The complaint says NEXT hired LJA in July 2024 for environmental consulting on the same parcel and stopped paying. LJA recorded a construction lien against the land in 2026 and is asking the court to foreclose it. The suit names the Teevins and several other lenders as defendants because they may also claim an interest in the property. The case number is 26CV46757.
LJA prepared the draft environmental impact statement that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers put out for public comment in February, according to the company’s own project timeline. The Corps permit is the last major approval NEXT needs. The Corps’ project page lists no decision date.
The Investors
In Harris County, Texas, five investors who bought 12 percent senior secured promissory notes from NEXT in May 2021 are asking a judge for summary judgment on $972,783 in unpaid principal and interest as of Dec. 31, 2025. Their motion, filed July 23, says NEXT never made a payment on any of the notes and ignored a January demand. Three of the five, along with two other lenders, are also named in the LJA suit as parties with possible claims on the Port Westward land.
The Letter to Salem
Columbia Riverkeeper and the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, which have fought the refinery for years, sent the records to Kotek and Secretary of State Tobias Read on Oct. 5 with a letter asking the governor to withdraw her support and asking Read to revoke NEXT’s authority to do business in Oregon. The groups say Delaware, where both NEXT entities are incorporated, lists NEXT Renewable Fuels Inc. as void and NEXT Renewable Fuels Oregon LLC as having ceased good standing over unpaid state taxes. The Tribune has not independently reviewed the Delaware records. Oregon’s business registry still shows both entities registered as foreign companies.
Kotek’s Dec. 30 letter to the Corps called the project “this $3 billion private investment” and cited more than 3,000 union construction jobs, 240 permanent positions, $45 million a year in state and county tax revenue and $5.5 million in fees to the Port of Columbia County. OPB reported Oct. 8 that the governor’s office and the secretary of state’s office were reviewing the groups’ letter and that NEXT did not respond to its questions.
The environmental groups also point to a 2016 OPB and KLCC investigation into TransMessis Columbia Plateau, a biodiesel plant in Odessa, Washington, that shut down after less than a year, left more than $1.6 million in unpaid bills and a $400,000 EPA cleanup, and counted NEXT founder Chris Efird among its backers, according to that reporting.
What It Means Here
The county rezoned Port Westward for the project. The Port of Columbia County holds a 90-acre ground lease with NEXT. State agencies issued its water quality certification and removal-fill permit. The refinery has been the largest economic development promise in Columbia County for most of a decade, and the land it is being foreclosed on sits at the center of it.