Last week Dr. Anna Stephenson, a scientist from DECC, flew from London to Raleigh, North Carolina to begin a two week investigation of the forest and climate impacts associated with the UK’s increasing reliance on imported wood pellets as a fuel source for generating electricity.
Dogwood Alliance convened a meeting for Dr. Stephenson with a number of conservation groups concerned about the exploding wood pellet export industry in the South and the impacts on forests, climate and our rural coastal communities.
Danna Smith’s article from “European Voice” on the troubling land degradation history in the Southern US and the dangers of biomass.
Recent scientific studies warn that burning trees for electricity might actually increase CO2 emissions. In addition, new evidence has emerged documenting that current European demand for wood as fuel is destroying some of the world’s most precious and vulnerable ecosystems – wetland forests in the Southern US.
In just the last two years or so, the wood pellet export industry in the US has exploded to meet spiking demand in Europe, where utility companies are phasing out coal and phasing in wood as a primary fuel source for electricity.
