By Paul Homewood
h/t Dave Ward / Robin Guenier
The BBC has finally caught up! There have been complaints for years about this:
A company that has received billions of pounds in green energy subsidies from UK taxpayers is cutting down environmentally important forests, a BBC Panorama investigation has discovered.
Drax runs the UK’s largest power plant, which burns millions of tonnes of imported wood pellets – classified as renewable energy.
The BBC has discovered some wood taken from primeval forests in Canada.
The company says it only uses sawdust and waste wood.
Panorama analyzed satellite images, tracked mining licenses and used drone videography to substantiate its findings. Reporter Joe Crowley also tracked down a truck from a Drax factory to verify it was picking up logs from a precious forest area.
Ecologist Michelle Connolly told Panorama the company is destroying forests that have taken thousands of years to develop.
“It is truly unfortunate that UK taxpayers are funding this demolition with their own money. Extracting natural forests and turning them into pellets to burn for electricity, that’s absolutely insane,” she said.
The Drax Power Station in Yorkshire is a converted coal plant that currently produces 12% of the UK’s renewable electricity.
It has received £6 billion in green energy subsidies. Burnt wood is considered green, but it is controversial among environmentalists.
Panorama found that Drax had purchased logging permits to clear two environmentally important areas of forest in British Columbia.
The Panorama team used drones to survey the area
One of the Drax forests is one square mile wide, covering large areas that have been identified as rare old growth forests.
The British Columbia provincial government says old-growth forests are particularly important and companies should stop exploiting them.
Drax’s responsible sourcing policy says it “will avoid damage or disturbance” to primary and old-growth forests.
However, the latest satellite photos show that Drax is currently cutting down forests.
Satellite images show deforestation in British Columbia
The company told Panorama that many of the trees there have died, and that logging will reduce the risk of wildfires.
The entire second Drax licensed area has been cut.
Drax told the BBC they did not cut down the forest themselves and said they had passed the logging licenses on to other companies.
But Panorama checked and authorities in British Columbia confirmed that Drax still holds the license.
Drax said it does not use logs from the two websites that Panorama has identified. It says they are sent to wood mills – to make wood products – and that Drax only uses leftover sawdust to make pellets.
The company says it uses some logs – in general – to make wood pellets. It claims it only uses small, twisted or rotten ones.
But documents on the Canadian forestry database show that only 11% of the wood delivered to the two Drax mills in the past year was classified as the lowest quality, unusable for wood products.
Panorama wanted to see if logs from primary forests cleared by logging companies would be shipped to Drax’s Meadowbank pellet mill. The show filmed a truck on a 120-mile round trip: leaving the factory, collecting piles of solid wood from a forest that had been cut down by a logging company, and then returning to the factory for delivery. for them.
Drax later admitted that they used logs from the forest to make wood pellets. The company says they’re a species the timber industry doesn’t want, and they’ll often be burned to reduce the risk of wildfires.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-enosystem-63089348
It’s amazing how Drax changed their story as evidence against them.
There is a lot of investigative work in the US, where Drax also operates, that have reached similar conclusions. However, Drax has insisted they never use virgin wood. That has now been proven to be a lie.
I’m also glad the BBC pointed out the absurdity that these trees will soon be replanted, with carbon offsets. As they note:
Primary forests, which have never been harvested before and store large amounts of carbon, are not considered a sustainable source. It is highly unlikely that replanted trees will retain as much carbon as old-growth forests.
However, the government finds itself in a dilemma. Without this feigned reduction in carbon emissions, it would not be able to meet its climate goals.
If they decide to stop treating biomass as renewable, they will have to drastically increase wind and solar instead.
Bioenergy accounts for 13% of UK electricity generation, more than wind on land.
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