New UK Government Science Report Confirms Burning Forests Bad for Climate

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) released its long-awaited Biomass Emissions and Counterfactual Model Calculator and an accompanying report Lifecycle Impacts of Biomass in 2020 report. The findings from the tool and associated report confirm what U.S. and European ENGOs have been claiming for the last few years – that burning forests for electricity is bad for our climate.

Scottish Biomass Burners Cancelled – Southern Forests Get Respite

In late 2012, Dogwood Alliance Campaign Director, Scot Quaranda, testified as an expert witness in opposition to the Forth Energy proposal for new biomass utilities in Scotland. Late last week, the company cancelled its plans to build these new facilities. Read the press release from Dogwood Alliance and our allies at BiofuelWatch and Global Justice Ecology Project celebrating the announcement and placing it into larger context…

Smiling Oak

Monster Enviva Wood Pellet Plants Invade Northeast NC Communities

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.

Ending the Rush to Burn

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.