Comments on: Drax Power to pay £25M to redress fund after failings in biomass characterisation data

By: John Spruill

John Spruill — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 19:09:55 +0000

Well said. The biodiversity destruction caused by by Enviva on behalf of Drax in North Carolina is massive. If my understanding is correct, logging like this would not be allowed in the UK. Yet, the massive subsidy the UK government is paying Drax is causing it to happen in North Carolina.

By: Nikki Jones

Nikki Jones — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 07:44:10 +0000

A miniscule fine for a company that cannot back up its own claims to sustainability – claims for which it gets massive taxpayer support.

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 06:43:41 +0000

It’s time to ax Drax. How can governments justify subsidizing this called green energy that has to pay fines for its lack of ability to actually produce evidence that it is sustainable?

By: Andy Wood

Andy Wood — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 03:07:49 +0000

In North Carolina, USA, Enviva the pelletizer is rendering whole trees into sawdust, prior to packing them into pellets that ships later carry 3,800 miles across the Atlantic, to Britain, spewing 5,000 tons of CO2 in the crossing before the pellets are burned with coal to generate about 10 hours of electricity for less than ten percent of Britain’s population. That said, I wonder if Drax is reporting the names of the North Carolina trees it burns? If not, here are a few: Water Oak, Overcup Oak, White Oak, Swamp Chestnut Oak, Willow Oak, Red Oak, Laurel Oak, , Black Tupelo, Shagbark Hickory, Mockernut Hickory, Pignut Hickory, Water Hickory, Green Ash, and collateral trees including Baldcypress, Pond Cypress, Pond Pine, Loblolly Pine, Longleaf Pine, Sweetgum, Tulip Poplar, Sycamore, and truly too many other species to list here. Drax likely doesn’t report the thousands of salamanders, frogs, turtles, lizards, snakes, and ground and tree-nesting birds and mammals, that get crushed and ground into the 160 acres of soil rolled-over every day by Enviva’s contract logging equipment, weighing 25 to 50 tons each, as they crisscross a landscape once supporting diverse shrubs, vines, and wildflowers that comprise the forest understory. It’s the ecological carnage Drax leaves in its wake that they prefer British ratepayers not see or understand. Instead, Drax seemingly prefers it to be our nightmare to witness and suffer. Sometimes energy schemes are as stupid as they appear. It just takes observation to bring them into focus. The biofuel industry is about economic wants for a few, not ecologic needs for the rest of us. Think environmental justice for all.

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 00:51:35 +0000

This 25 million pound fine is one more example of why Drax’s record from British Columbia to Mississippi to Westminster makes it unworthy of the massive subsidy that it is receiving.

By: James

James — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 21:39:40 +0000

It would be interesting to know whether data from British Columbia prompted the penalty – not least because 1) Drax is that province’s leading exporter of pellets and 2) Drax’ Vice President of Sustainability for Drax North America was previously the province’s Chief Forester.