Wood Pellet Mills Are Prone to Catching Fire. Why Build Them in California?

This communicative originally appeared connected Grist and is portion of nan Climate Desk collaboration.

Wood pellets, by design, are highly flammable. The mini pieces of compressed woody leftovers, for illustration sawdust, are utilized successful everything from location heating to grilling. But their flammable quality has made for vulnerable activity conditions: Since 2010, astatine slightest 52 fires person surgery retired astatine nan accommodation that make wood pellets crossed nan US, according to a database of incidents compiled by nan Southern Environmental Law Center.

Of nan 15 largest wood pellet facilities, astatine slightest 8 person had fires aliases explosions since 2014, according to nan Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit founded by a erstwhile head of nan US Environmental Protection Agency.

At nan aforesaid time, nan world’s largest biomass company, Drax, is cutting down trees crossed North America pinch a committedness to waste them arsenic a replacement for fossil fuels. But moreover its way grounds is checkered pinch accidents.

In South Shields, UK, wood pellets destined for a Drax works spontaneously combusted while successful retention astatine nan Port of Tyne, starting a occurrence that took 40 firefighters 12 hours to extinguish. In Port Allen, Louisiana, a Drax wood-pellet installation burst into flames successful November 2021.

Now, contempt uncovering itself successful nan midst of a suit complete accidental occurrence damages, Drax is pressing connected pinch a caller business proposal; it involves not conscionable cutting down trees to make wood pellets, but, nan institution argues, besides to thief extremity wildfires.

In October 2023, aft purchasing 2 parcels of onshore successful California to build 2 pellet mills, 1 successful Tuolumne County and different successful Lassen County, Drax’s partner organization, Golden State Natural Resources, aliases GSNR, “a nonprofit nationalist use corporation,” met pinch residents of Tuolumne County to reside concerns astir its imagination for really nan process of manufacturing wood pellets tin mitigate wildfire risk.

GSNR has since touted its adjacent activity pinch organization members. However, according to Megan Fiske, who instructs agrarian workers astatine a section organization college, residents surviving adjacent to nan projected pellet mill sites were not ever alert of nan plans. “People who were a 100 feet distant from nan [proposed] pellet works had nary thought astir it,” said Fiske.

Both of nan projected mills are successful forested areas that person been threatened by wildfires. When asked astir nan risks that manufacturing wood pellets poses, Patrick Blacklock, executive head of GSNR, told Grist, “We sought to study from those incidents. The creation features tin spell a agelong measurement to mitigating nan consequence of fire.”

If region representatives o.k. nan plan, loggers will beryllium allowed to return “dead aliases dying trees” and “woody biomass” from wrong a 100-mile radius of nan pellet mills wrong nan 2 counties, which overlap pinch nan Stanislaus National Forest and nan Yosemite National Park.

Fiske said she’s seen instances, unrelated to Drax, wherever loggers weren’t trained decently and ended up taking much wood than should person been allowed nether a wildfire resilience scheme. “There’s a quality betwixt what nan loggers are told and what happens connected nan ground,” said Fiske. You person “inexperienced aliases young group who are underpaid, possibly English isn’t their first language, truthful location are a batch of barriers.”