Dr. Luis Contreras – Recent developments regarding the U.K. Drax Group and the U.S. Enviva Partners may change the future of Arkansas. Many things need to happen but the results would be awesome for the Natural State.
Enviva and Drax under investigation
A report filed on March 14, 2016 by the Dogwood Alliance and the Partnership for Policy Integrity, on behalf of Enviva shareholders holding $53 billion in assets, requested an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Enviva’s claims “burning wood pellets reduces greenhouse gas emissions and benefits forests.”
The European Commission opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether the U.K. plans to subsidize conversion of a third 660-megawatt generator at the Drax power station from coal to wood pellets, are in line with EU aid rules, and assess whether the results of burning pellets are achieving EU energy and environmental 2020 objectives.
Pet Rocks and wood pellets
Commercial products have perceived value that makes them desirable. Pet Rocks gave busy people a simple alternative to taking care of a dog. After six months, the pet rock industry died. Enviva sells wood pellets as “low-carbon” solutions to power plants replacing coal.
Enviva has created a whole new export industry with a massive supply chain, consisting of wood pellet mills with an average capacity of 500,000 metric tons per year, an army of loggers, forest owners, truckers, railroads, storage facilities, export ports, shipping lines, etc. All to keep the Drax 4,000-megawatt coal-fired power station alive.
Enviva’s website says for investors: “We export our pellets primarily to power plants in the United Kingdom and Europe that previously were fueled by coal, enabling them to reduce their carbon footprint by about 80 percent.”
The carbon reduction is an illusion. It has been generously called “an accounting error” by some, but now there are 53 billion questions. Let’s do an experiment. Go to your bank and ask for a $1 million unsecured loan, payable in 100 equal installments of $10,000 per year. If your bank uses Enviva pellet-math, you will walk out with $1 million and come back for more!
The November 2015 AlterNet article, “How Europe’s good environmental intentions are inadvertently destroying America’s Forests,” tells the Enviva story. How can increasing greenhouse emissions be good for the environment? A hot place is waiting for people with good intentions, ironic at a time of global warming. How can the deforestation be an unexpected result?
With pictures of trucks full of whole logs making deliveries to their mills, Enviva needs to come clean. It is not. According to the March 2016 MIT report, “Pellet Problem: Biomass & Climate,” Enviva is blaming environmental organizations, and apparently using the “too big to fail” strategy.
False solutions drive wrong behavior
Surviving climate change requires new rules. Coal power plants and other polluters, need to pay private forest owners to keep standing forests. The USDA and the US Forest Service need to stop burning and thinning public forests. Arson and illegal logging need to stop. The Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC), the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and other state agencies need to stop using public funds to lure pellet mills, fluff mills, and other high-pollution, energy-intensive, high-carbon industries.
Emergency Preparedness
To prepare the state for extreme weather emergencies, let’s use public funds and other AEDC grants for Public Works providing thousands of full-time jobs. A recent study found California at the top of the Emergency Preparedness list and Arkansas, unchallenged, at the bottom. The rankings were done by comparing what precautionary steps a state has taken relative to the climate threats the state is expected to face in the future. Arkansas needs to be prepared, the threats are real.
Hope for our forests, hope for the future
Honest businesses create value and are sustainable, good for all. False climate solutions profiting dishonest companies are unacceptable. How can Drax toxic wood smoke using Enviva pellets to power the grid be ignored? You can’t train rocks and you can’t stop climate change by burning our forests.