UK’s Drax targets California forests for two major wood pellet plants

  • 📰 SATodayNews
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 102 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 44%
  • Publisher: 51%

South Africa Headlines News

South Africa Latest News,South Africa Headlines

South Africa Today, News source, provides breaking news on South Africa, world, Africa, sport, travel and more.

8 Ways To Find The Best Web Design Agencies For Your…Golden State Natural Resources , a California state-funded nonprofit focused on rural economic development, along with the U.K.’s Drax, a global maker of biomass for energy, have signed an agreement to move ahead on a California project to build two of the biggest wood pellet mills in the United States.

Drax, a major global manufacturer of wood pellets for bioenergy, has joined a California nonprofit in a controversial plan to build two industrial-scale wood pellet plants in the state. The two mills combined will be capable of making and exporting 1 million tons of pellets annually, primarily for Asian markets.

“Our purpose is to enhance forest health, leading to forest resiliency with a long-term sustainable project primarily through science-based best practice forest thinning and treatments,” Norton was quoted as saying. A potential dramatic expansion of wood pellet production on the West Coast comes as global demand surges for an energy source to replace or reduce coal use.As part of its strategy to gather forest wood for wood pellet production, GSNR has said it will promote “salvage logging” in areas damaged or destroyed by wildfire. This June 2022 photo of an area burned in the Dixie Fire, one of the worst ever in California, illustrates what salvage logging looks like.

For its part, GSNR has missed deadlines in producing a required environmental impact study and faces obstacles in complying with the California Environmental Quality Act. But it has already acquired land in Tuolumne county in the foothills of the central Sierra Nevada range as well as in Lassen county on the Modoc Plateau in Northern California.

Since June 2023, more than 100 environmental, Native American and local community organizations have filed comments with the Golden State Finance Authority , opposing the pellet plants on issues ranging from damaging fragile ecosystems to increasing carbon emissions and decreasing quality of life. GSNR’s argument that the pellet plants will provide an economic boost to otherwise depressed rural communities is challenged by the reality of the 20-some wood pellet plants operating from southern Virginia to the Deep South. Plants there are typically located in poor counties, rarely have more than 75 employees and pay mostly modest wages for high-turnover jobs.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 44. in ZA

South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

South Africa: Search Continues for Survivors of Building Collapse in South AfricaThe search continued Tuesday in South Africa for workers trapped in the collapse of a multi-story building under construction outside of Cape Town that left at least four people dead.
Source: allafrica - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

South Africa: SABC Editor-in-Chief Called for Security Vetting and Polygraph Before South Africa ElectionThe Committee to Protect Journalists on Monday expressed alarm that South Africa's spy agency wants to subject Moshoeshoe Monare, the editor-in-chief of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), to additional security vetting and an invasive lie-detector test ahead of the country's crucial May 29 general election.
Source: allafrica - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

South Africa: Codeine Misuse - South Africa Set to Get New GuidelinesIn response to high levels of codeine abuse in South Africa, health authorities have been developing a plan to track the supply of the drug from manufacturers all the way to patients. In this Spotlight feature, Jesse Copelyn explores why people get hooked on codeine, and how the new project could combat the problem.
Source: allafrica - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

South Africa: Surprise Comeback of South Africa's Ex-President Jacob Zuma Could Challenge ANCSouth Africa's ex-president Jacob Zuma is running a visible and noisy campaign for May's elections against his former party, the ruling African National Congress (ANC), another bump on a difficult road for the historical post-apartheid party.
Source: allafrica - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

South Africa: How the Mandela Myth Helped Win the Battle for Democracy in South AfricaAnalysis - Political history scholar Jonny Steinberg's 2023 book Winnie & Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage is a double biography of South Africa's most famous political figures - Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela Mandela - and their role in the country's struggle for democracy.
Source: allafrica - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

South Africa: Never Has a Wise Vote Been More Important to the Future of South AfricaAnalysis - After thirty years of democracy, the heroes of freedom have been replaced by the hyenas of stealing
Source: allafrica - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »