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The Climate Alliance (TCA)
Green subsidies are creating a feeding frenzy for unproven technologies. They are providing incentives for companies to justify development of new projects in woody biomass and carbon capture and storage (CCS).
Enviva, the Largest Woody Biomass Producer Declares Bankruptcy
Enviva, the world’s largest maker of wood pellets, with ten facilities in the southeast United States, has just declared bankruptcy. It plans to continue operating and expects to emerge with its business intact in spite of a $1.8 billion dollar debt. Its business model depends on European and Asian environmental policies that deem wood pellet emissions less harmful than fossil fuels. Enviva has survived thus far because it has received massive subsidies and tax breaks.
Drax looks to carbon capture and storage (CCS) subsidies to continue operating after 2027
The British energy company Drax operates 18 wood pellet facilities across the U.S. and Canada and ships the pellets to Europe for use in power plants. Per the BBC, Drax took more than 40,000 tons of wood from old-growth Canadian forests in 2023. In October 2023, it stopped sourcing wood from old-growth priority deferral areas. However, it is still taking wood from old-growth sites that are not “priority deferral areas.”
Drax has received £5.6bn in UK green subsidies over the last decade. These subsidies are due to end in 2027, so Drax is looking for new subsidies to continue funding its annual £1.7 billion operating expenses.
Enter carbon capture and storage. Drax has submitted plans to build a Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) project in 2024. The plan depends on the UK government’s ability to establish a market mechanism for the technology.
But just recently, in March 2023, Drax announced that it is pausing its plans for its new BECCS project until it receives more clarity on government support.
BECCS is an unproven and expensive technology. Green subsidies are creating vigorous competition for unverified technologies.
A pending climate disaster in California
Now, Drax is partnering with a private company, Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR), to build two large projects in California, one in Lassen County and one in Tuolumne County. These facilities would export wood pellets from California forests to international markets. GSNR is targeting a ~100-mile radius area around each proposed facility to source material for production. This tract includes parts of eight national forests including Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Lassen National Forest, and Plumas National Forest.
Log deck in Stanislaus NF, 2024. Most of this logging project was for biomass energy. Credit, Isis Howard
This is a five-alarm climate disaster! To date, the biomass energy industry has destroyed more than two million acres of forests in the US South.
Biomass is not renewable
Biomass is currently categorized as a “renewable” energy source along with solar and wind, and as such is eligible for funding through the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The reality is that woody biomass energy production has more in common with fossil fuels. The pellet industry purports to use primarily mill and forest waste for pellet production, but there is abundant evidence of truckloads of logs and whole trees, not just leftovers, being processed.
The same log deck, from a distance. Credit, Isis Howard
Converting forest products into fuel creates a chain of emissions, starting with the initial gathering of wood waste and the culling of whole trees. These are transported to facilities to be converted into pellets and then shipped to Europe and Asia, where they are burned in power plants which were previously fueled by coal. “Burning wood to generate electricity emits more carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour generated than fossil fuels – even coal, the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel.”
Take action
Notify your state legislators, local electeds and CCA members that woody biomass energy is a false solution – it is not clean, not cheap, and not carbon-neutral.
For more information study the Biomass Power Basics document and this review: Environmental sustainability of biofuels, Royal Society & Royal Academy of Engineering.
Further reading
California’s concerning embrace of a new forest biomass industry
Wood Pellet Mills in California: A Blessing or a Boondoggle?
Four Ways We Know Drax’s Appetite for Trees Is Still Growing
Wood Pellet Giant Drax Targets California Forests
Garamendi, King Introduce Biomass for Transportation Fuel Act
Groundbreaking lawsuit takes aim at U.S. Forest Service’s timber targets