Protecting Our Community,

Preserving Our Future

UNITED AGAINST ETHANOL MANUFACTURING IN FERNANDINA BEACH

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What's Happening Now

September 3, 2025: Second in a series of Informational Forums. Fernandina Branch of Nassau County Library, 25 N. 4th Street

Topic: Litigation Update

August 6, 2025: Second in a series of Informational Forums. Fernandina Branch of Nassau County Library, 25 N. 4th Street

Topic: Environmental & Safety Risks and Unknowns

July, 2025: NEF Announces Organizational Changes. Subscribe and stay current on all events and news by clicking here and choose the manner in which you can more actively join this fight.

June, 2025: The Florida Legislature has wrapped up its budget bills and the Governor signed them on June 30. This year's Legislative Session is over. No Ethanol Fernandina and the residents of Fernandina Beach scored a great victory! Proposed legislation designed to override our City's denial of RYAM's ethanol project was defeated. Now we face the fight in the 2026 Legislative Session.

Please watch this space for timely updates, including details on our Informational Forum Series.

Important

The NO ETHANOL FERNANDINA effort is facilitated by two Florida non-profits: Fernandina Wins, Inc. {501(c)3} & Fernandina Wins Advocacy, Inc. {501(c)4} These entities have distinct missions and operating parameters both dedicated to our core mission of NO ETHANOL FERNANDINA. Please view the separate Donation pages for a thorough description of how these entities operate and why.

DBA No Ethanol Fernandina, Fernandina Wins is a 501(c)3 Tax Exempt Florida non-profit. Donations to this arm, qualify for a tax deduction as per IRS rules and fund our community awareness work. Your contribution will enable us to continue our mission through Informational Forums, Town Halls and other educational activities.

Our Advocacy Arm is a 501(c)4 Florida non-profit. Donations to our Advocacy arm are not tax deductible. Contributions to this arm enable us to fund lobbying efforts in Tallahassee. We recognize that the battle to keep ethanol manufacturing off our Island is now being fought in the state legislature and we need to be in that fight. Our Advocacy arm has a pressing need to be adequately funded.

Donate to No Ethanol Fernandina

Donate to Fernandina Wins Advocacy

The Issue

Rayonier Advanced Materials, Inc. (RYAM) applied to the City of Fernandina Beach (CITY) for a site plan application for a new ethanol manufacturing facility to be built on land zoned for industrial purposes at its Gum Street mill site. The CITY determined that the proposed facility cannot be built on land because operation of the plant involves new chemical manufacturing and refining which are types of industrial uses specifically prohibited by the CITY’s Comprehensive Plan (CP) and Land Development Code (LDC) in our industrial zones. Consequently the CITY found RYAM’s application to be incomplete, and denied the application.

RYAM supported legislation in the Florida Legislature redefining chemical manufacturing to exclude ethanol production thereby allowing the proposed plant in the CITY. NO ETHANOL FERNANDINA, our lobbying team and the CITY’S residents aggressively opposed this legislation and defeated it in the 2025 Legislative Session.

RYAM also filed two lawsuits, one in State court and one in Federal court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief that the CITY violated its code and procedures when the CITY denied its site plan application and that the facility is legally permitted. RYAM also sought monetary damages and alleged a Constitutional equal protectio of the law violation in the federal lawsuit. Both lawsuits are ongoing.

Why We Oppose this Facility

New Chemical manufacturing or refining in our City’s industrial zones are prohibited by the Fernandina Beach Comprehensive Plan (CP) and Land Development Code (LDC).

The industrial production of ethanol by any means is chemical manufacturing, including by fermentation and distillation.

RYAM’s proposed industrial-scale production of ethanol on land zoned by the CITY for industrial uses, is wholly distinguishable from, and regulated entirely different from permissible commercial production and sale of beer or distilled spirits on land zoned by the CITY for commercial use or mixed-use.

RYAM’s proposed industrial-scale production of 7.5 million gallons of ethanol a year at a site adjacent to a densely populated residential area and situated along the environmentally sensitive Amelia River poses both potentially harmful environmental and nuisance impacts.

Transport of this highly flammable and hazardous chemical to market from the mill site by tanker trucks poses safety concerns and additional harmful environmental and nuisance impacts all along the route within the City and through Nassau County.

The many unanswered questions and unknowns about the construction, operational risk, and long-term environmental impact of RYAM’s proposal underscore why the City expressly prohibited chemical manufacturing and refining and also serve as an additional, independent basis for the CITY to deny RYAM’s proposal even if it is deemed to not be chemical manufacturing.

No Ethanol Fernandina’s Actions

A group of concerned citizens organized Fernandina Wins, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation d/b/a No Ethanol Fernandina and No Ethanol Fernandina Advocacy, to oppose the project in the Legislature and to support efforts against the facility’s construction in the courts.

No Ethanol Fernandina seeks your help and support in opposing RYAM’S efforts to build this facility including volunteering and donating to No Ethanol Fernandina to support these efforts.

Please take a moment to view this website and familiarize yourself with NO ETHANOL FERNANDINA and the issues and our efforts to prevent the construction of this ethanol manufacturing facility on our island.

We will keep an updated status of all RYAM’S efforts and NO ETHANOL FERNANDINA’S responses and other actions in this IMPORTANT section of this Website. This will refer you to our LEGISLATION AND LITIGATION and other pages which will provide more detailed information and links to allow you to read actual filings should you choose to do so.

Status of Proposed Ethanol Plant Approval

Florida Legislature

Legislation to redefine “chemical manufacturing” which would have allowed RYAM to build the Ethanol manufacturing Facility failed in the now closed 2025 Legislative Session.

State and Federal Lawsuits

The lawsuits petition the courts for injunctive relief declaring its application to be complete, enjoining the City from denying it based on an improper use, and requiring the City to send its application to the City's Technical Review Committee for a compliance review. In addition, RYAM asked for nearly $4M in legal fees / damages. The Federal lawsuit also alleges the CITY violated RYAM’s right under the US Constitution for equal protection of the law.

This is a cursory description of the status of the Legislative efforts, the State case and the Federal Case. Please go to our LEGISLATION and LITIGATION page (LINK ?) and the other pages on this website for a more detailed description of the status with links to the actual documents filed in the Legislature, the State case and the Federal.