British-owned Drax is responding to assertions of pellet plants chipping old-growth wood in B.C.
The operator of pellet plants in Houston and Burns Lake is calling “inaccurate and misleading” assertions it is chipping old-growth wood for pellets,. However, it does admit loads of old-growth trees were taken to its plants.
Drax is a multi-national user of wood which it burns to help turn turbines to generate electricity in Britain, admits that nine truckloads of wood from old-growth areas were delivered its pellet plants.
“For context this was nine out of almost 8,000 truckloads delivered to Drax’s pellet plants over the three months in question – delivering equivalent to around 0.15 per cent of the material received,” the company said in a March 13 release.
The assertion Drax was converting old-growth into pellets came from a March 10 release in which two environmental groups said that the company’s claims in 2023 it would not be taking old-growth wood did not reflect what it was actually doing.
“We were surprised to hear a Drax representative claim that they did not procure old-growth logs after 2023. An in-depth analysis shows that this company continued to source logs from old-growth as recently as January, 2024,” said Len Vanderstar of the Smithers-based Bulkley Valley Stewardship Coalition.
The company, however, says wood can come from harvest locations known as “blocks” and that there can be overlaps with old-growth deferment areas.
“The erroneous truck loads were identified internally at Drax shortly after delivery and we have continued to refine our processes with third parties within our supply chain to reduce the risk of this happening in future. That work is ongoing,” the company said.
Michelle Connolly from Prince George-based Conservation North said Drax actually received 103 loads of logs at its Burns Lake and Houston pellet plants from old-growth areas as late as as late as January, 2024.
“Thirty-nine of those loads came from blocks that overlapped with [old-growth] priority deferral areas,” she said.
Vanderstar said the groups were “appalled” at logging in old-growth areas despite the province’s commitment to preserve old-growth forests.
“What is also upsetting is the fact that these forests are a significant component in carbon capture and should not be used to generate electricity in the name of climate change mitigation.”
“None of the material from these nine trucks has been used for biomass pellets delivered to Drax Power Station in the UK,” Drax said.
The Drax Power Station in Yorkshire, England once burned coal but now burns pellets to heat giant boilers producing steam to turn the turbines to generate electricity.
Because the station burns pellets instead of coal, Drax said it is part of the overall effort to reduce carbon emissions.
In North America, Drax owns in whole or in part a series of pellet plants.
Included in that list is a number of pellet plants in the north and interior of B.C. that were purchased from Pinnacle Power in 2021. This includes the Drax Meadowbank factory located at Strathnaver, about 20 minutes north of Quesnel.
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