This investigation by Land and Climate Review was first published in The Times. Read their coverage here.
Wood pellet mills owned by UK energy giant Drax have violated environmental regulations 11,378 times in the US since 2014, an investigation by Land and Climate Review has found.
The violations, which occurred at six wood pellet mills across Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Washington, include exceeding permitted limits of toxic air pollutants, bypassing crucial emission-control technologies and releasing contaminants into waterways.
Angus Evers, a senior environmental lawyer at Shoosmiths, described the numbers as “extreme” and said that some repeated breaches “suggest poor management.”
More than 8,700 of the violations occurred within the last five years – a mean average of five violations of environmental law per day since the start of 2020.
“I’m not aware of any oil refinery or chemical plant here in the UK that has got that sort of compliance record,” Evers said. “I don’t even think the worst-performing water companies have got daily breaches of this number.”
The research was conducted by Land and Climate Review using documents held by US state governments.
As well as almost 600 officially recognised violations in 2023, the investigation uncovered nearly 3,500 additional incidents in Drax’s own 2023 reporting that are expected to be classed as violations once they have been reviewed by state authorities. This would bring the total violation count to 14,865.
Drax’s deviations in previous years have usually later been classed as violations by regulators, meaning that Drax is likely to face further penalties in the US in the future.
In 2023, almost 6 million tonnes of wood pellets were imported and burnt as fuel at Drax Power Station in Selby, north Yorkshire, the largest power plant in the UK. 78% of them came from the US, where Drax owns and operates a total of eight pellet mills.
The majority of the violations are breaches of air quality laws, with almost 1,000 relating to excess releases of dangerous air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds. Some of these substances are carcinogenic, while others can cause respiratory problems and eye, nose and throat irritation.
In response to Land and Climate Review’s findings, US Senator for Maryland Chris Van Hollen said: “Any company found liable for this many environmental violations must be held accountable and closely monitored to ensure they meet their obligation to follow the law going forward.”
In April 2024, Senator Van Hollen introduced the Forest Biomass Emissions Act of 2024 to the US Congress alongside fellow Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker. The bill seeks to address the impact of wood pellet mills on air quality, noise pollution, and the health of nearby residents.
Drax’s history of rule breaking “underscores the need to pass the Forest Biomass Emissions Act – legislation that will help us learn more about biomass energy production so we can take steps to better safeguard public health, our climate, and our economy,” Senator Van Hollen added.
As well as exceeding permitted limits of dangerous pollutants, state environmental department documents show that Drax also bypassed key technologies that are designed to limit harmful emissions. At the La Salle Bioenergy in Louisiana, control technologies were bypassed 333 times in 2022 – almost once a day.
Of the violations, 45 relate to water quality – specifically failures to monitor pollution levels in water discharged from the facilities, or instances where pollutant limits were actually exceeded.
In 2022, a compliance inspection of the Morehouse Bioenergy pellet mill in Louisiana found the site had exceeded water pollutant limits 17 times between 2017-2022 and had failed to sample, or reported invalid water samples, on eight occasions during the same period.
Evers said these sampling failures point to possible problems with leadership at the facilities: “If you know you’ve got a sampling obligation and it just doesn’t happen, why is that?”
“It’s not as if someone was off sick and they submitted the report late. This is reporting not happening at all,” he added.
Drax has been fined more than $6.1m in total across eight penalties issued by environmental regulators since 2019. This sum covers less than a quarter of the violations uncovered by Land and Climate Review.
Most recently in September 2024, the company was fined $225,000 for violations relating to hazardous air pollutants at its mill in Gloster, Mississippi. Drax is also currently in dispute resolution discussions with Louisiana regulators over a compliance order that is likely to result in the largest fine Drax has ever received in the US.
Drax is reliant on subsidies to operate and in 2023, the company received £548m from UK bill-payers according to Ofgem.
In response to the findings, a Drax spokesperson said that since 2022, “Drax has invested over £100 million on improving and enhancing our pellet plants, and by the end of 2024, we plan to invest a further £30 million.”
“We work closely with regulators to establish the best environmental practices,” they added, while noting that the company “uses an independent third-party to assist in reporting the data to our US regulators”.
“We can do better, and we are making progress in raising standards and improving our processes. Drax will continue to work closely with regulators and local communities.”
This investigation by Land and Climate Review was first published in The Times. Read their coverage here.
Appendix
The complete list of environmental violations compiled by Land and Climate Review is viewable below.
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