Coalition Calls on UK to Stop Burning Georgia Forests for Electricity

Atlanta, GA – Today, a diverse coalition of conservationists, student groups and outdoorsmen from across the Southeast held a rally outside of the British Consulate in Atlanta, GA calling on the U.K. to stop burning Southern US forests for electricity. The U.K. is the world’s largest importer of wood pellets from the region, some of which are harvested from endangered wetlands, shipped to Europe and burned to generate electricity as a replacement for coal. Last year, wood pellet exports from southern ports increased more than 70 percent.

Outrage Over US Secret Approval of GE Trees

Groups from around the world today joined together to denounce the US government for allowing the first genetically engineered tree, a loblolly pine, to be legalized with no government or public oversight, with no assessment of their risks to the public or the environment, and without regard to overwhelming public opposition to GE trees.

Plantations are not forests

American Citizens to EU Commision: Stop Cutting Our Forests

Over 50,000 US citizens are appealing to European Commissioners Arias Cañete and Vella for a change in the EU legislation that has caused a boom in the demand for wood pellets produced from Southern US forests. Their demand is today being delivered to the European Commission by BirdLife Europe and the European Environmental Bureau.

EPA Misses the Forest for the Trees

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has failed to protect the forests, communities and climate with its new proposed framework for regulating biogenic carbon emissions from stationary sources. They have not followed the recommendations of their own Scientific Advisory Board as well as the mounting government and academic research that burning trees for electricity is going to increase Carbon emissions and accelerate climate change.