A funding request that would help pave the way for a $1 billion zero-carbon nitrate fertilizer plant in Richland has moved to a U.S. Senate subcommittee for consideration.

The city of Richland has asked for $5 million for engineering work needed to eventually make the connection between the Northwest Advanced Clean Energy Park and the Bonneville Power Administration grid, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, recently advanced the request to the Energy and Water Development appropriations subcommittee, said Joe Schiessl, Richland’s deputy city manager.

It’s an exciting step – one that helps move the needle on the fertilizer plant project that would benefit Richland and the entire region, Schiessl said.

Atlas Agro wants to build a plant – called the Pacific Green Fertilizer Plant – in the clean energy park.

It’ll produce 700,000 tons of nitrate fertilizer a year, creating about 160 high-skilled full-time equivalent jobs.

The construction and ongoing operation also will support hundreds more supplier jobs and several thousand indirect jobs, as well as hundreds of additional jobs during construction, the company said.

Atlas Agro is on track to decide by the end of the year whether to move forward with the project, which it’s described as a pioneering initiative that will revolutionize the fertilizer industry.

One major piece of the equation is power.

The plant will need a sizable amount. The city of Richland operates its own electric utility, though it won’t be the power provider for the fertilizer plant. Instead, Atlas Agro plans to go to market to buy power from clean sources.

But to make it work, “we need to create a new connection to the BPA grid,” which acts as something of a highway for power, Schiessl said. “And to make that connection, we need about 12 miles of new line from the BPA Ashe Substation. We’re also hopeful that we can upsize this line to serve additional industrial clients in the clean energy park.”

That’s where the $5 million request for engineering work comes in, setting the stage for adding the line and opening up the clean energy park for even more development.

“There are companies around the world that are looking for large tracts of land and access to clean power to relocate their manufacturing facilities, and there’s a window of opportunity for Richland and the Tri-Cities to benefit from what the marketplace is seeking,” Schiessl said.

Dan Holmes, Atlas Agro’s president for North America, said the company “is grateful for its partnership with the city of Richland, and recognizes the leadership the city is demonstrating as it pursues an integrated economic development strategy for the Northwest Advanced Clean Energy Park.”

He added that, “the federal funding the city of Richland is pursuing will help build the utility infrastructure that will ensure new companies looking to build in north Richland have access to clean power – including Atlas Agro’s Pacific Green Fertilizer plant, which will provide more efficient, locally produced zero-carbon fertilizers to Pacific Northwest farmers.

“While Atlas Agro is the first mover in need of this upgraded infrastructure, the new substation and transmission lines are critical to advancing the region’s ‘Clean Up to Clean Energy’ economic development strategy and enabling the next generation of clean energy development and industrial decarbonization in the region,” Holmes said.

Construction of the new line itself will likely be costly. How it would be paid for is being evaluated, Schiessl said, noting it could be the BPA, the city or a combination of city and private industry footing the bill.