French fry giant that closed Connell plant lands nearly $5M from WA Climate Act
Dec. 5—Two Mid-Columbia french fry plants along with a proposed fertilizer plant and several other companies were awarded nearly $9 million in grants funded by Washington’s Climate Commitment Act.
Five Mid-Columbia recipients were among 46 that shared $37 million from the climate act.
Lamb Weston Holdings Inc., the Eagle, Idaho-based french fry giant with plants across the Mid-Columbia, received the lion’s share of the local grants, about $4.6 million.
Lamb Weston announced the grants on Dec. 2, about two months after it closed its plant in Connell with little advance warning.
The closure put nearly 400 workers out of a job. The company had about 3,000 local employees prior to the plant closure at its manufacturing, corporate and research facilities in the Tri-Cities area.
The state’s money will pay for upgrades at Lamb Weston’s still-operational plants in Pasco and Paterson in southern Benton County.
The Pasco plant received $2.9 million to reduce its use of natural gas for heating equipment and to cut water consumption.
The Paterson plant received $1.7 million to for efficiency upgrades, solar lighting for its parking lot and a heat recovery system.
The state awarded the grants before anyone knew the Connell facility would close, a spokeswoman confirmed.
Lamb Weston submitted its grant proposals in mid-June and the decision to make the award was made in August.
The state learned about the plant closure on Oct. 1, when Lamb Weston filed a worker notice and announced the shutdown to workers and the public. It stopped processing potatoes a day earlier.
Other Mid-Columbia recipients
* Carbon Containment Lab, Prosser, received $1 million for a feasibility study concerning the use of woody biomass for a carbon sequestration project.
* Emrgy Inc., Pasco, received $325,000 to develop and demonstrate a low-flow hydropower turbine.
* Fasahov Solar LLC, Sunnyside, received $1 million for a 2-megawatt solar project connected to agriculture.
* Pacific Green Fertilizer Corp., Richland, aka Atlas Agro, received $2 million toward renewable power and water at its proposed $1 billion carbon free fertilizer plant. Atlas has a deal to purchase land in Richland but has not finalized the decision to build there.
The clean energy grants are funded by the multi-billion dollar Climate Commitment Act, which raises billions by auctioning carbon credits to polluters. It was the target of a failed repeal in the Nov. 5 general election.
Washington voters retained the program, which steers auction proceeds to projects that promise to curb carbon emissions and combat climate change.