Why Drax claims on biomass energy and environmental benefits don’t add up – Yorkshire Post Letters

YOUR article (Yorkshire-based Drax aims to double its sales of sustainable biomass by 2030 to markets in Asia and Europe, The Yorkshire Post, December 14), should make the Government very wary of making Drax its poster child for biomass energy.

Drax to invest £40m at its North Yorkshire power station on first phase of carbon capture project

While the official line is that the UK will move towards domestic production of energy crops, Drax’s investments say otherwise. Instead, the company is locking in damaging biomass supply chains and imports.

COP26: A Yorkshire climate activist’s view from summit and challenge to Drax – Daniel Willis

Earlier this year, Drax purchased Pinnacle Renewable Energy in Canada, the world’s second-largest producer of industrial wood pellets. Prior to Pinnacle’s (now Drax’s) announced acquisition of pellet sales contracts for Pacific BioEnergy Corporation, Drax already owned or had interests in at least 17 other pellet plants and development projects across North America, which it uses to self-supply pellets.

The biomass that Drax’s subsidiaries produce, and that Drax imports and burns to make electricity in the UK, is notoriously high-carbon and ecologically destructive. This includes trees from Canadian forests, which are ground into pellets and used as fuel at Drax Power Station.

Last month, one of the Government’s own ministers, ignored the official line and candidly told his colleagues that there are ‘real problems’ with burning wood for electricity. Lord Goldsmith went on to say that it was right to “raise very good questions” about the future of biomass. Knowing that it has a problem, it is wrong for the Government to continue subsidising business-as-usual at Drax to the tune of £2m per day. The company is now lobbying the Government for massive new subsidies to further extend the life of its biomass-burning power station. Agreeing to this would lock in more burning of trees from sensitive forests in Canada and around the world.

If the Government is serious about reforming its biomass supply chains and stopping forest destruction, it must reject billions in subsidies to Drax and distance itself from Drax’s business model.

From: Dr Alistair Cameron, Rodley.

IT is disappointing to see that once again Leeds Bradford Airport is attempting to promote the idea that its expansion plans will be in no way damaging to our planet’s climate and are good news for all concerned (The Yorkshire Post, December 15).

Few people would oppose a new terminal but anyone who cares about our climate emergency should be totally opposed to the massive expansion in greenhouse gases which will result from the huge increase in flights which LBA is seeking. It’s LBA propaganda. We shouldn’t fall for it – and neither should local politicians.

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