European Commission Report Likely To Push EU To Close Wood Pellet Energy Loopholes

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As we’ve reported previously, deforestation of the Southeastern US has been amplified in recent years as a result of growing demand in the European Union for wood pellets that can be burned in place of coal — mostly owing to loopholes in the EU’s climate policies that put wood-burning thermal power plants on equal footing with solar and wind power plants.

wood pellets US

These loopholes have essentially led to the subsidization of imported wood pellet for use as fuel in many places, despite the high carbon dioxide emissions associated with the practice. There are of course other environmental concerns as well, but the fact that the practice of burning imported wood pellets shipped from across an ocean is being subsidized as a “solution” to climate change is of course particularly egregious.

A new 361-page report commissioned by the European Commission goes into the details of “myriad” environmental hazards of the transatlantic wood pellet trade, and advises that the loopholes allowing for its subsidization be closed.

As it stands, European Union climate rules regard wood/biomass-fired power plants as being as clean as wind or solar energy — despite them, in fact, producing considerably more carbon dioxide emissions than even some coal-fired power plants. There’s also the issue of subsiding deforestation on the other side of the world for supposedly “environmental” reasons.

Climate Central notes:

The loophole in Europe’s climate policies is a veritable accounting error that has led to national energy subsidies that are financing a burgeoning industry. The subsidies are paying for wood pellet fuel to be produced at newly built mills in the American South, where trees are plentiful and forest protections are minimal.

Without reducing climate pollution, the industry is helping European countries meet European Union rules on carbon emissions, if only on paper.

Dozens of Southern mills produced an estimated 5 million tons of wood pellets that were exported to Europe last year, with production growing by a third on average each year since 2012. Producing each ton of dried wood pellets requires roughly twice that amount of freshly cut wood.

“The U.S. is the main exporter of wood pellets to the EU,” said Daniel Calleja Crespo, who directs the European Commission’s environmental department, which commissioned consultants to produce the report. “The growth of the industrial pellet industry has raised concerns about possible negative environmental impacts — direct and indirect.”

Possible negative environmental effects? You don’t say?

The intent of those who commissioned the report was to help inform the expected update of the European Union’s climate and energy policies after 2020.

The report identified a number of policy risks accompanying support of the wood pellet trade, including: “biodiversity loss, deforestation and forest degradation in the US,” and an inability to meet required greenhouse gas emissions reductions in Europe.

Image by Southern Environmental Law Center.

Related:

Wood Energy Subsidies On The Chopping Block In The Netherlands

US Forest Service Supports Wood Pellet Bioenergy; No Issue with Emissions


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James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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