In the rural town of White Oak, South Carolina, residents breathe a sigh of relief as their months of hard work pay off: this town will not be living with a wood pellet facility in their neighborhood! Stopping the wood pellet facility is a victory for our forests, our climate and our Southern communities.
Last week, Rita Frost and I left the office for a two week Outreach Tour to meet with people across the South who are passionate about protecting our Southern forests. We are here to learn what issues are important to them in their communities, and how Dogwood Alliance can support them. We are here to understand what their relationships are to their local and global forests.
The European Union (EU) Commission recently announced an investigation into the state aid provided for the world’s largest forest destroyer for electricity, Drax. The taxpayer dollars that the UK is providing Drax to convert to burning Southern US forests for electricity is another example of why this destructive industry is moving us backwards away from a healthy, truly sustainable future.
For the past 3 years, Dogwood Alliance, NRDC, and SELC have sounded the alarm about the widespread, destructive impacts to our forests, communities and climate caused by the rapidly expanding wood pellet industry. Today’s announcement by Enviva, the largest wood pellet manufacturer in the US, is a clear indication that the collective efforts of our organizations are having a direct impact on the practices of this industry.
Big money corporations are extracting our natural resources in the South, making millions at the expense of hard working Southerners with no lasting benefits to those of us who call this region home…
