Citizens Decry State Ports Authority’s Decision to Move Forward Without Fully Evaluating Project’s Destructive Impacts on Forests, Communities, and Climate Wilmington, NC – North Carolina residents held their own public […]
Citizens and environmental groups across the Carolinas called on the state of North Carolina to reject a proposed port expansion to accommodate Enviva in Wilmington, NC. The proposed project involves the lease of state public land at the state port to a wood pellet manufacturer, Enviva LP, for the development of a wood pellet export facility.
In November of 2011, Enviva, a major corporate wood pellet producer with international sales, began operations at a rebuilt, former Georgia Pacific sawmill in Ahoskie, NC. Residents close to the plant have faced 24/7 extreme noise and lights, dust that coats cars, buildings, and lungs in just a few minutes, along with dangerous heavy truck traffic. While European power plants seek huge shipments of wood pellets as supposedly “greener” fuel than the coal they burned in the past, eastern North Carolina has turned into the Southeast’s latest energy colony.
Burning the forests that are supposed to be our best defense against climate change to protect us against climate change has to be one of the most ridiculous ideas I’ve ever heard. Yet over the last few years, Europe has wholeheartedly embraced this false solution to climate change, and we’ve seen a dramatic increase in logging in the Southern US to fuel European demand. Along the way, the US South has become the largest wood pellet export region in the world.
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.
