Global energy giant Drax Group was fined $34,000 in June for starting construction on a $250 million biomass fuel plant in Longview before securing the proper permits.
The 48-acre plant will be located at 125 Mill Road and is set to begin operations in late 2025. Each year, it will produce nearly 1 million pounds of pellets, known as biomass fuel, from wood left over from local sawmills and then ship them to customers in Asia. The pellets are burned to generate electricity as a coal alternative.
The penalty came from the Southwest Clean Air Agency, a regional environmental regulator. It found out about the violation from a public tip that passed along a social media post showing construction at the site.
“We sent some inspectors up to the site to go investigate,” said Uri Papish, executive director of the government agency. “And when they went out there, they discovered that, yes, in fact, there were some foundations or building support structures that had been built for equipment.”
At that time, a final permit for the project had not been issued, Papish said. Instead, the project had secured only a draft permit that was in a 30-day public comment period.
Inspectors also saw foundations for equipment that wasn’t on the permit application, leading the agency to withdraw the project’s draft permit.
“Drax is committed to environmental compliance and remains focused on transparency and open communication with federal and state agencies, as well as the local community,” Drax Group spokeswoman Megan Hopgood said in a statement. “Once we were contacted by SWCAA, Drax immediately acted in good faith to assemble the appropriate team and partnered with SWCAA to understand and address their concerns. Drax promptly halted any construction activities occurring at the facility.”
Not the first controversy
But that fine, which Drax has since paid, wasn’t the first controversy surrounding the mega-project. In March, Longview residents and environmental activists asked regulators to take a closer look at the project, The Daily News reported.
On its website, the UK-based Drax describes itself as a “renewable energy company” and frames the pellets as a “sustainable” way to “decarbonise energy systems” without increasing deforestation.
Critics point out that the energy-generation approach creates electricity from burning the wood pellets, releasing pollution just as coal-fired power plants do.
The U.S. Department of Energy has said that although “burning biomass releases about the same amount of carbon dioxide as burning fossil fuels,” it has “the potential to greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions” as long as it doesn’t clear forests.
Once operational, the plant will control about 95 percent of the pollution it produces in accordance with Southwest Clean Air Agency standards, according to Papish and a previous technical support document accompanying an Air Discharge Permit Application.
But another U.S.-based Drax biomass fuel plant recently came under fire for allegedly causing serious environmental and health impacts. In July, an Associated Press investigation found a plant in Mississippi had polluted the air and impacted residents’ respiratory health.
The Longview plant will emit pollutants known to harm human health, including carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds and particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers, also called PM2.5, according to the original technical support document. The plant will be required to keep those pollutants within specified limits measured by tons per year.
“We remain committed to the construction of our Longview pellet production plant, which will support hundreds of local jobs and provide a high value use for the current surplus of wood residues in the region,” Hopgood said. “Drax also remains committed to complying with all environmental regulatory requirements and will continue to provide any necessary information requested by SWCAA. Drax is committed to making a lasting, positive impact in the communities and regions where we operate.”
The project will tap into rising demand for biomass energy, with the market for the pellets projected to nearly double to $16 billion between 2024 and 2033 as poorer countries seek to develop with less reliance on traditional fossil fuels than the U.S. and other wealthy nations used.
But, for now, the project is in limbo as the company redesigns it before it begins the permitting process again, Papish said.
“Once they have a final design for the plant, then they’ll need to do air-quality modeling and make sure they meet all the air-quality standards, and resubmit that information to the agency,” he said, “so that we can create a new draft permit for public review.”
