Our precious forests are being cut, chipped and shipped overseas

Wood pellet industry should not receive federal tax credits.

The Biden administration’s latest efforts to protect forests focus on preserving old growth trees on public land. That sounds good — unless you live in the South.

In the South, few of our trees qualify as “old growth,” and most forests are on private land. So they’re not protected, and they’re being logged at rates rivaling the Amazon rainforest. Our trees are being turned into tiny pellets, shipped to Europe and Asia, then burned to make electricity in a process that emits more carbon than burning coal does.

Taxpayers are subsidizing the wood pellet energy industry’s growth. This is a huge blank spot on the administration’s otherwise impressive environmental agenda. There’s an easy fix: Don’t let funding from the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy provisions fuel the growth of the woody biomass industry.

Over the next few months, the U.S. Department of Energy will sort through applications for tax credits, and wood pellet companies are lining up. They claim they’re offering climate-friendly energy. They aren’t. The White House can make sure the DOE heeds the harm the industry is doing to Southern communities and the climate.

If you drive from my hometown of Adel to Savannah or Brunswick, you can see the damage from the wood pellet industry. Logging trucks enter roads running along miles of clear-cut land. You might pass wood pellet mills, some of which have been fined by the state for violations involving hazardous pollutants. You will see forests and communities becoming sacrifice zones for multinational biomass companies.

Adel — with a population of 5,500 and a poverty rate of 23% — has a sordid history with the wood industry. Our West Side community, made up predominantly of people of color and lower-income residents, once hosted a lumber yard where utility poles were made. The yard has been closed for decades, but the creosote-polluted soil still remains.

It’s no surprise that when a biomass energy company wanted to build a wood pellet mill in our neighborhood, we were concerned. We banded together as the Concerned Citizens of Cook County and, with the help of allies like the Southern Environmental Law Center, won an agreement that ensures community air monitoring, air purifiers close to the plant, frequent community meetings and other protections. The plant hasn’t been built, and we’ll be happy if it stays that way.

You might think of trees as immediately renewable, that planting a new tree for every one cut keeps the system in balance. When it comes to climate change, though, that doesn’t work. Mature forests lock up more climate-changing carbon than newly planted saplings and keep that carbon out of the atmosphere. On top of that, recently logged areas are more susceptible to flooding. And wood pellet mills — disproportionately built in low-income communities of color — emit toxic pollution, dust and noise its neighbors can’t escape.

Washington shouldn’t help the wood pellet industry expand by granting tax incentives funded by a bill that’s supposed to protect the climate. End taxpayer-funded incentives for international corporations that chop down our forests, pollute our air and generate dirty energy. Our Southern forests are much more valuable when they are left alone to thrive and serve our people and planet.

Treva Gear