Not only does clearcutting US forests, turning them into pellets, and shipping them to Europe to be burned for electricity have a grievous cost for our climate, but it also destroys the habitat of the South’s rich and biodiverse plant and animal ecosystems.
Last month we released our first investigative video in support of the Our Forests Aren’t Fuel campaign: Wetlands Up in Smoke. The short film featuring a wide variety of voices documents the growing impact of the wood pellet industry on our Forests, community and climate.
Environmental groups in 23 states today requested that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) end its three year exemption of biomass power plant greenhouse gas emissions from Clean Air Act permitting – an exemption that also enables biomass plant builders and operators to avoid using the best pollution controls for the smokestack emissions that cause local air pollution and harm human health.
Visiting both London and Brussels, Dogwood Alliance and our partners at NRDC and SELC got the opportunity to meet with the largest companies in Europe importing wood pellets from the Southern US to burn for electricity in the UK, Brussels, Netherlands, Denmark, Poland and more. The meetings were an excellent opportunity to not only better understand the marketplace and decisions driving this destructive practice, but were also a great opportunity to carry the spirit and voice of communities across the South to let these companies know we will not stand idle and let this madness continue.
Bioenergy industry gathers at the NC Exports Wood Conference to plot a course for an ill-advised, short-sighted expansion in North Carolina,
