Asheville, NC — Energy company Drax planned to build a huge data center in England. The center would have run on power from burning wood. That plan has stalled. The Times reports that the project did not win government funding. The North Yorkshire Council has also pulled its support.

Earlier this year, advocates from the US South traveled to York to fight the project. The delegation included Kathy Egland, Dr. Krystal Martin, and Michél Legendre. They joined University of York students. The students opposed the project because of its environmental and public health harms.

Kathy Egland co-founded EECHO in Gulfport, Mississippi. She is its program director. Since 2010, she has also chaired the NAACP National Board’s Environmental and Climate Justice Committee. Dr. Krystal Martin leads Greater Greener Gloster. The group wants to close the Drax plant in Gloster, Mississippi. Michél Legendre is Campaigns Director at Dogwood Alliance. Dogwood is a nonprofit that protects Southern forests and communities from industrial logging.

The data center could have burned wood pellets made at Drax plants in the South. These plants cut down forests. They also release pollution linked to:

  • cancer
  • heart disease
  • respiratory problems
  • other serious illnesses

Legendre praised the UK government and the North Yorkshire Council. He applauded them for refusing to back the project.

“This is a good day for forest protection and environmental justice. It appears that more stakeholders are waking up to Drax’s dirty energy scam. Wood pellet energy is anything but clean and green. As the UK cuts Drax’s subsidies, its move to power AI data centers with biomass is a desperate attempt to save itself. Now, we need US policymakers and power companies to follow the UK’s example. We call on them to prevent any concessions to Drax in the form of subsidies. We call on them to dismiss Drax’s proposals to power AI data centers here in the South.”

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) works with Dogwood Alliance. Together they are stopping the growth of the wood pellet industry. Matt Williams is a senior forest protection advocate at NRDC. He said:

“Burning forests to run server farms was never a serious plan. North Yorkshire Council saw that. Drax’s pellet mills sit in communities across the US South, where families are already breathing the pollution. As tech companies go looking for power here, utilities and lawmakers need to shut the door on biomass. Trees are not a fuel source for the AI boom.”

Tech companies want to build many AI data centers across the South. What could happen if those centers ran on burned wood? Dogwood’s report found harm to Southern forests and to communities that already face heavy pollution.

Read the report: Fueling Destruction: How AI Data Centers May Drive a Renewed Biomass Crisis

Scot Quaranda

Scot has been with Dogwood Alliance since 2000 and has served as a campaign organizer, field director, campaign director and is currently the communications director. In his role he is in charge of story telling, creative, media relations, and PR. He has a dual BA from Drew University in Psychology and Philosophy and has worked previously with the Fund for Public Interest and in music PR for artists such as Buddy Guy and Ani DiFranco.