This is a guest post by Japjyot Singh, Programs Consultant
Land and Climate Review published an investigation into the UK company, Drax. Drax is a major industrial wood pellet producer. It’s also the largest consumer of wood pellets for biomass electricity in the world.
What is biomass?
Biomass creates energy by burning living materials like plants and trees. How is this biomass made? Companies like Drax:
- cut down forests in the Southern US
- turn them into wood pellets
- ship the pellets overseas to places like the UK
- burn the wood pellets for energy
Burning forest biomass is worse for the climate than coal.
Drax wood pellets and human health
The wood pellet facilities are also dangerous to the health of surrounding communities.
The investigation showed US Drax facilities have broken green rules over 11,000 times:
“8,700 of the violations occurred within the last five years – [an] average of five violations of environmental law per day.”
This is absurd. How can we continue to let Drax operate? But state and federal decision-makers are sacrificing health and safety for profit. We must confront these violations as a collective. These false climate solutions cannot continue any longer.
Communities and justice
Drax plans to expand with 20 other facilities across the United States. We can’t let that happen. That’s why we support communities like Gloster, Mississippi. We work together to stop Drax’s expansion.
Communities come first in the fight against climate change. Justice comes first. Centering environmental justice will benefit the whole environmental movement.
Together, we can build a bright, clean, and sustainable future for every person on the planet.
Get involved: Take action to stop the biomass industry.
Japjyot Singh fights biomass harms and pollution. He is a graduate of an Environmental Justice program. He builds solutions to climate change. They combine cultural contexts, land relationships, and personal histories.