This story was originally Appearing on Grist is part of the climate desk collaboration.
The wood particles designed are highly flammable. Small pieces of compressed wood leftovers, such as wood chips, are used in everything from home heating to barbecue. But their flammable nature has adapted to dangerous working conditions: Since 2010, at least 52 fires have erupted in facilities that have caused wood pellets throughout the United States, according to an incident database compiled by the Southern Environmental Law Center.
According to a nonprofit formed by a former director of the Environmental Protection Agency, at least eight have had fires or explosions since 2014 since 2014.
Meanwhile, Drax, the world’s largest biomass company, is cutting down trees throughout North America and promising to use them as a replacement for fossil fuels. However, even its past results are formatted with the accident.
In the British Southern Shield, the drax plants that were destined to be spontaneously burned when stored at Tyne Harbour, started a fire that took 40 firefighters 12 hours to be extinguished. In Port Allen, Louisiana, the Drax wood timber facility broke out in November 2021.
Now, despite finding himself in a lawsuit against compensation for accidental fire damages, Drax is pushing for new business advice. The company believes it involves not only cutting down trees to make wood particles, but it can also help stop wildfires.
In October 2023, two plots of land in California were purchased to build two pellet plants, one in Tuolumne County and the other in Lassen County, a partner organization that built Drax, Golden State Natural Resources or GSNR, a “non-profit public welfare company,” met residents of Tuolumne County and residents of Tuolumne County to address its focus on the manufacturer’s vision.
Since then, GSNR touts close work with community members. But, according to Megan Fiske, who directs rural workers at local community colleges, residents living near the proposed pellet mill are not always aware of the plans. “A person with a distance of one hundred feet [proposed] Granule plants know nothing about this. Fisk said.
Both of the proposed mills are located in forest areas threatened by wildfires. When asked about the risks posed by manufacturing wood pellets, GSNR executive director Patrick Blacklock told Grist: “We try to learn from these events. Designing features can help greatly reduce the risk of fire.”
If county representatives approve the plan, loggers will be allowed to take “dead or dying trees” and “woody biomass” from within a 100-mile radius within two counties, which overlap with Stanishouse National Forest and Eussimite National Park.
Fisker said she had seen instances that were not related to Drax, where loggers were not properly trained to eventually pick up more wood than the wildfire elastic program allowed. “There is a difference between the lumberjack telling and what happens on the ground,” Fisker said. “You have “inexperience or lack of young people, maybe English is not their native language, so there are a lot of obstacles.”
