Last month, Louisiana’s state legislature officially passed HB670. Soon the governor will sign the bill. This opens the door for a major expansion of the biomass industry. It makes it easy for large scale wood pellet biomass facilities to enter the state and pollute the air. And it’s the communities who’ll bear the healthcare and environmental burdens. This bill is part of a regionwide industry effort. An effort to create more favorable regulatory and financial policies.
Louisiana is the emerging face of industrial expansion in the Deep South. Amazon’s recent $12 billion data center investment in the state is a stark example. The legislature is incentivizing large-scale industries to take root in the state. They’re doing nothing to create protections that ensure community safety.
Why is the Biomass Industry Harmful?
The wood pellet biomass industry has a history of clean air violations. Biomass companies like Drax and Enviva have shown themselves to be unstable. They’re ineffective industry partners in the Gulf South and nationwide. In the past 5 years alone:
- Enviva went bankrupt
- Drax was cited for thousands of environmental violations. Many of those violations were in Louisiana. Several of the citations led to a $3.2 million dollar fine in Louisiana in 2022.
- Drax depends on UK subsidies. But the UK is cutting those subsidies in half in 2027.
The legislature is putting many Louisianians lives at risk for this unreliable industry. It sets a dangerous precedent.
How Can We Fight Back?
Louisiana legislators have admitted that they’re uninformed about the biomass industry. That they don’t know the impact biomass has on communities and forests. It’s our responsibility to make our concerns known. We must protect the health and future of Louisianians.
Take Action to stop Drax and dirty biomass in the Southeast.