Appeal from Biofuelwatch

Biofuelwatch is asking UK climate and social justice groups urgently to consider signing this open letter to support frontline communities in North Carolina who are facing the expansion of a huge pellet mill in Ahoskie which supplies wood pellets to burn at UK power stations like Drax and Lynemouth:  

The mill is owned by the world’s biggest wood pellet producer, Enviva. If this pellet mill expansion goes ahead, it will increase dangerous air pollution for local communities, lead to the destruction of around 24,000 acres of forest, harm wildlife and make the climate crisis worse. 
The pellet mill expansion will also lead to even more wood being burned at UK power stations like Drax, Lynemouth and the new Tees Renewable Energy Plant near Middlesbrough, with very harmful impacts on the health of UK communities and on the climate. 
The letter is calling on the Governor of North Carolina to say no to the expansion of the wood pellet industry in the Southern US and we’re hoping as many UK groups as possible will sign it ahead of a public hearing in North Carolina on Tuesday 16th August. 
Frontline community activists would like to read out the letter at the hearing to show Enviva and the Governor of North Carolina that they are being supported by groups in the UK. Biofuelwatch would be very grateful if your climate or social justice group would like to sign.

Here’s the text of the letter

Dear Governor Cooper,

We, the undersigned environmental and climate justice groups in the UK, are writing to urge you to say no to Enviva’s plans to expand the wood pellet industry in North Carolina. We firmly stand in support of frontline groups’ complaints about Enviva and share their disappointment as to the lack of action to address the rapidly expanding wood pellet production market in North Carolina. 

If you are to be the climate champion that you claim, the climate, forest, biodiversity and environmental justice impacts of the wood pellet industry must be addressed.

As UK groups, we have a focus on North Carolina because many of your forests that are turned into pellets end up being burned in our power stations: Drax and Lynemouth. If the Enviva Ahoskie facility is permitted to expand, the equivalent of over 24,000 hectares of forest will be cut to meet its new capacity. We understand that North Carolina justice groups warn that this will lead to more logging trucks and more pollution. 

In the UK, the same is true. The wood pellets that Enviva supplies to burn at Drax and Lynemouth Power Stations are producing harmful air pollution and Drax is facing prosecution from the Health and Safety Executive in the UK for risking the health of their workers through exposure to harmful wood dust from pellets. 

Burning wood for energy in UK power stations is also making the climate crisis worse and Drax Power Station alone emitted over 13 million tonnes of CO2 from burning wood in 2021. Any expansion of the Ahoskie pellet mill in the United States will also have consequences for us here and would further exacerbate these health and climate impacts as Enviva is expected to supply pellets to burn at the Tees Renewable Energy Plant near Middlesbrough.

In 2021, 500 scientists from around the world signed an open letter about the impacts of wood bioenergy sourced from forests, warning: “regrowth takes time the world does not have to solve climate change. As numerous studies have shown, this burning of wood will increase warming for decades to centuries. That is true even when the wood replaces coal, oil or natural gas.” 

Although climate scientists agree that the world must significantly increase its ability to retain carbon in forests, American forests are sequestering considerably less carbon today than they did just 30 years ago. Forests are a vital natural carbon sink, and burning them for fuel is a dangerous policy that will exacerbate climate change, particularly since burning biomass is not carbon neutral and in fact produces more pollution and more carbon emissions than the coal it is intended to replace.

It is time to stop this dirty and destructive industry that is harming people, wildlife and the planet. We need standing, natural forests. Forests absorb carbon, filter our water and our air, protect us from dangerous storms and floods, and provide vital green spaces for nature and people. 

For the sake of forests, wildlife, communities and the climate, we urge you to refuse this application for Enviva’s Ahoskie mill expansion and to place a moratorium on any expansion of the wood pellet industry.