Comments on: Drax wins development consent to capture carbon at two units

By: Julia Townsend

Julia Townsend — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 13:21:04 +0000

All the reasons why wood pellets are not a sustainable energy source are explained here. Visual people may also want to visit http://www.burnedthemovie.com

By: Toby Aykroyd

Toby Aykroyd — Sun, 04 Feb 2024 12:03:04 +0000

Any approval of BECCS, together with the extension of subsidies for Drax involved, would prolong and expand the damaging farce of large scale solid (wood) bioenergy burning.
Drax themselves admit that wood bioenergy emits more CO2 per kWh than the fossil fuels it is meant to replace, including even coal, thus worsening climate change, destroying biodiversity and aggravating respiratory disease.
This argument is not just coming from environmentalists and healthcare experts. Investment institutions are also making their views clear – in 2021 Drax was expelled from the Dow S&P Clean Energy Index because of its high emissions. In 2023 even its own Advisory Board warned that it should cease claiming its products to be ‘carbon neutral’.
BECCS is technically unproven at scale, highly expensive, heavily dependent on subsidies and based on an unscientific lie about the ‘renewability’ of wood (impossible in the time scale needed to address climate change) and an accounting system that allows Drax to avoid counting emissions from its power generation. Furthermore it is a colossal waste of money from hard-pressed taxpayers and consumers (one estimate citing expenditure of £32 billion over 25 years) that could be spent on genuine renewable energy sources, recycling, insulation and fuel efficiency – all actually tackling climate change and generating much higher levels of sustainable economic activity and employment.

By: Andy Wood

Andy Wood — Sat, 03 Feb 2024 02:19:03 +0000

Hubris: “extreme or excessive pride or dangerous overconfidence and complacency, often in combination with arrogance.” As example of hubris, consider the idea of fabricating CO2 capture and storage facilities and their associated transmission pipelines, built-out at planetary scale with belief but without proof, of its meaningful relevance for climate change mitigation, let alone proof that the scheme will be sustainable across multi-generations. The Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) idea contradicts the bioenergy corporate line about new trees sequestering CO2 produced by burning older trees. BECCS is very simply a disingenuous red herring intended to distract people from, among other things, the mundane reality of human-hastened climate change. Drax and its supporters appear only to desire their business-as-usual lifestyle at public expense. BECCS is simply a sparkly scheme intended to capture a hopeful publics’ attention; much like so-called “renewable” biofuel-fed energy schemes now proven to be worse for human life than fossil fuel-fed energy schemes. Living forests of trees provably capture and store carbon for free. BECCS however, is an unproven, very expensive energy industry grift, dressed in green, and paid for by taxpayers who would otherwise do well to focus on supporting meaningful climate and energy policies that address needs of future generations, rather than wants of today’s power brokers.

By: Marina Richie

Marina Richie — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 01:30:50 +0000

We have sophisticated carbon capture and storage already–it’s called FORESTS. Ironically, the heavily subsidized Drax is responsible for clearcutting forests –including old-growth (storing far more carbon and for far longer than smaller trees)– at a massive scale from the southeastern U.S. to British Columbia.

By: Anita

Anita — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 20:13:46 +0000

Why is the “jig” not up with the wood pellet industry and it’s false claims of renewable energy and that it uses wood scraps and fallen limbs (they are deforesting NC at an alarming rate) and are given subsidies to provide this harmful processing method onto our already overburdened and impacted communities. Enough is enough! Wake up and take heed from the communities that you are harming Drax. Leave NC and you’re not welcome back.

By: Karen Vermeer

Karen Vermeer — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 14:15:04 +0000

Next to the fact that BECCS is an unproven technology, it is very odd that Drax is still receiving taxpayer money from the UK government. It is widely known that Drax is causing severe impacts on our environment, biodiversity and to people. Destroying forests (including their full and rich ecosystems), health and noise pollution, contributing to environmental injustice, etc. The company is not only refusing to stop and remediate these impacts, it is actively denying them. As an European citizen it is really hard to grasp why the UK government would support this.

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 10:22:07 +0000

Roughly 164 acres of mostly hardwood trees are cut down every day in North Carolina, alone, for this pellet industry. Many of these trees taking centuries to grow. Every day these trees are cut down, losing their carbon capture capabilities, the habitat they provide, from slugs to black bears, while only providing 10 hours of electricity for 4 million people. You may be able to capture a portion of carbon from burning these trees but it doesn’t make up for what those trees sequester daily or the habitat that has been stolen, and the carnage of dead reptiles, plants, mammals, birds, and insects that are destroyed never to return, adding to the sixth mass extinction. How about investing that money into real solutions for sustainable energy?

By: Krystal

Krystal — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 04:26:23 +0000

Drax in Gloster, Mississippi received a second notice of violation for hazardous air pollutants. As of today, Drax has not paid a fine for this violation, and yet they continue to release hazardous air pollutants in our small rural majority Black community. When will Drax stop polluting our communities. People are suffering from cancer, breathing issues, asthma, heart failure and many people are dying.

By: Tom Brennan

Tom Brennan — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 03:57:43 +0000

Another life sustaining government handout for unproven technology while it’s main feedstock supplier begins the potential brown-fielding of it’s US operations with bankruptcy looming in it’s near future. What a complete debacle. The losers: human health and our planet’s life sustaining trees in the southeast US; the winners: corporate greed.

By: J R Spruill

J R Spruill — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 00:29:20 +0000

Well said! At every opportunity citizens should ask the directors of Drax Group how many of the wood pellet plants Drax owns and those operated by Enviva, their largest supplier, have they visited.