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Opinion: Wood Pellet Industry Good For Environment, Economy

By Robert Warwick, posted Aug 1, 2014
The wood pellet storage facility proposed by Enviva Wilmington Holdings LLC at the N.C.  Ports in Wilmington is good for both the environment and the economy of North Carolina.

The Coalition for Economic Advancement, a nonprofit advocacy organization that supports responsible economic development, supports the Enviva Ports project and its proposed manufacturing facilities. The wood pellet facility at the Ports is intended to receive, store and export pellets produced at three proposed manufacturing plants, two in North Carolina and one in South Carolina.
 
The wood pellet industry is good for North Carolina landowners, forest owners and the general public. Wood pellets are a renewable energy source. They are cost effective, clean and a reliable source of energy.
 
In a recent opinion article by The Dogwood Alliance, an Asheville-based nonprofit with a mission to stop “deforestation”, they decried the Enviva project for its “negative impact on the environment.” In our opinion, the Dogwood Alliance is barking up the wrong tree.
 
The wood pellet storage facility at the N.C. Ports will have no negative impact on the environment. In fact, the wood pellets produced by Enviva will use limbs, tops, thinnings, and other unmarketable wood that would otherwise be left behind on the forest floor (which inhibits regrowth). By creating a market for these wood products, Enviva is motivating landowners to replant timber and keep these lands forested and out of the hands of developers. The harvesting and replanting of timber in North Carolina has been a sustainable economic driver in our region for decades, as evidenced by the continued growth of our North Carolina forests. According to the USDA Forest Service, forest resources have increased by 94 percent in the Southeast over the past 60 years.
 
The federal government has declared wood pellets to be a green, renewable energy source. And contrary to Dogwood Alliance claims, North Carolina has an abundance of underutilized forests. According to the N.C. Department of Agriculture, North Carolina has 4 million tons of excess wood capacity. The wood pellet plants to be constructed by Enviva would use approximately 3 million tons of this excess wood, which would be a significant economic boon for the timber industry. 
 
Enviva is required by its customers to demonstrate that all of the timber harvested for its wood pellets is done so in a sustainable, environmentally sensitive manner. The Dogwood Alliance claim that Enviva clear-cuts huge tracts of forest for wood pellet manufacturing is simply false.
 
First of all, Enviva does not initiate harvests – it buys its fiber from landowners who are already harvesting a tract of timber for multiple markets (high quality timber is sold to saw mills, as telephone poles, etc.). Only the low-quality limbs, tops and chips are purchased for wood pellet manufacturing – debris that would otherwise litter the forest floor and slow reforestation. Secondly, the average harvest in North Carolina is only 38 acres, hardly the large scale clear-cutting that Dogwood Alliance claims. The small scale of these harvests ensures the local environment and area wildlife are not adversely impacted. Third, Enviva will not source from a landowner who has cleared an area for development. It only harvests wood from stands that will be replanted either manually or naturally.
 
And contrary to Dogwood Alliance’s claims, the Ports did look at the potential impacts of Enviva’s three proposed manufacturing plants, (although it was not required to do so). After a very thorough examination, the N.C. Ports submitted an Environmental Assessment and proposed Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). A FONSI indicates that the Ports evaluated the potential direct, indirect and cumulative environmental impacts of the wood fiber sourcing for the manufacture of wood pellets. The Ports found no significant impact because forest inventories in North Carolina continue to increase despite harvests of all kinds.
 
Enviva’s proposed manufacturing plants in Sampson and Richmond counties will create several hundred jobs, plus hundreds more for truckers, loggers and other support personnel. These jobs are desperately needed in our region. ENVIVA will directly invest more than $200 million in the Greater Wilmington region, and in addition to salaries, Enviva spends more than $35 million annually at each of its plant locations. This is significant investment in eastern North Carolina.
 
Do not allow Dogwood Alliance or any other organization to drive this business away from eastern North Carolina. Enviva is a good, environmentally sensitive company with an excellent track record in sustainability. These are exactly the type of jobs we should be welcoming to our area and to the Wilmington community.

Robert Warwick is past chairman and member of the Coalition for Economic Advancement.
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