Environmental groups urge UK to stop subsidizing wood pellet producer Drax

Forty-one environmental organizations from countries that export wood pellets to the UK have written to Secretary of State Ed Miliband, urging him not to give in to lobbying by Drax for new subsidies once existing support runs out in 2027.

Drax power station in Yorkshire burns more wood than any other plant in the world, all of it (nearly six million tonnes of wood pellets in 2023) imported. The UK pays more subsidies for burning wood, mostly in power stations, than any other country in Europe, and Drax is by far the biggest recipient of those subsidies, according to a release issued by the groups. The previous government proposed several years of new, so-called ‘transitional’ subsidies for Drax and possibly Lynemouth Power Station which, according to its impact assessment, could come to £2.5 billion a year.

The majority of the wood pellets burned at Drax come from the southeastern USA and Canada.

“Given that the world has approached and even exceeded tipping points with respect to global warming, the solution to climate change is not further de-greening the planet via logging its forests, in part of in full, for purposes of wood pellet production,” said Len Vanderstar, a director of the Bulkley Valley Stewardship Coalition, one of the signatories on the letter.

Adam Colette of Dogwood Alliance,based in North Carolina, added: “Our forests and communities have long suffered from the destructive practices of the biomass industry. The devastation is led by Drax and financed by the British government. Our hope is that a new administration sees the impacts that come from false solutions which harm the people and environment in the Southern US and stop subsidizing planet destroying companies.”

Drax also burns substantial quantities of wood pellets from Latvia, Estonia and Portugal.

The groups that signed the letter are urging the government to use the money saved by not granting new subsidies to Drax and Lynemouth Power to support genuinely low-carbon, clean renewable energy such as wind and solar power instead.