| Take Action |
| Donate |
The backers of a controversial project to build two forest-damaging pellet plants in California recently ratified a Memorandum of Understanding with Drax, a dodgy British biofuels corporation.
This step underscores an intent to push forward with installing the enormous and dirty wood pellet-manufacturing facilities in rural California—in Lassen County at Nubieber and in Tuolumne County at Jamestown—despite mounting public outcry in opposition.
The pellets produced from stripping California forests would be burned overseas to generate what is falsely characterized as "clean" electricity. Chief project proponent stateside is Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR), an organization linked to an array of California government entities and officials.
Drax reportedly has referred to the project as accessing "the California fiber basket."
The proposed plants combined would produce 1 million tons of pellets yearly. They would be transported to the Port of Stockton, then shipped to power plants primarily in Europe and Asia. There are not yet any U.S. destinations planned for the pellets.
See our Resources section at the bottom of this page for more details about Drax and dirty biofuels.
Incinerating wood pellets is highly polluting, emitting more carbon emissions per unit of electricity produced than coal.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Drax is widely recognized as an environmental bad actor. Its rap sheet of pollution problems—with disproportionate impacts on disadvantaged communities—includes courtroom settlements in the U.S. and abroad.
| Take Action |
Paul Hughes
Executive Director
Forests Forever
| Your contribution today will help California's forests thrive! | |
|
RESOURCES →
- This recent story in DeSmog sets forth GSNR's budding partnership with Drax.
- In case you missed Forests Forever's latest alert on this campaign, check it out here.
- Find out more about Drax here.
- If you thought the industrial-scale wood pellet industry wasn't hazardous, this video (4:15) may help convince you otherwise.
- Pellet-industry leader Enviva's false claims were exposed in this Mongabay investigation video (5:10). We would expect the same from Drax.
- Our campaign ally, Natural Resources Defense Council, explains in this blog post why pellet manufacturing is a very wrong way to address California's wildfire woes.