UK accused of funding environmental racism with subsidies to Drax
The UK government has been accused of funding environmental racism by giving £2m a day in subsidies to an energy company that has paid out millions over claims it breached pollution limits in the US south.
An investigation by Unearthed, Greenpeace’s investigative unit, found Drax Biomass paid millions of dollars to US regulators over claims it exceeded limits on chemicals emissions at wood chip plants close to black and low-income communities.
Among the charges faced by Drax was that it exceeded limits on emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), a class of air pollutants linked to cancer, breathing difficulties and other health effects.
“My message to the UK government is that you are subsidising environmental racism,” Katherine Egland, a director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), told Unearthed. “And I would send an invitation to the UK government to come to the US and go to some of these communities where these plants are operating. It is not a safe environment. It is very harmful to these communities.”
Drax describes itself as the UK’s “largest source of renewable energy”. It operates three hydroelectric sites in Scotland, but its main operation is a wood-fired power station near Selby, North Yorkshire, which is one of the largest in Europe.
To fuel its operations, and to tap into an increasing global market for biomass fuel, Drax operates an extensive North American supply chain, with 13 sites in the US and Canada producing 1.5m tonnes of compressed wood pellets a year.
Late last month, according to documents discovered by Unearthed, Drax agreed to two settlements of $1.6m each with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) to settle claims against two of its
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