The General Assembly’s failure to renew funding for the state’s Jobs Development Incentive Grant (JDIG) program won’t keep wood pellet manufacturer Enviva, which is building a storage facility at the Port of Wilmington, from receiving as much as $1.7 million in JDIG awards, according to state officials.

While the JDIG fund is currently at about 75 percent of capacity, Enviva and other companies whose qualifying projects are in the pipeline will still get funded, Kim Genardo, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Commerce, said Wednesday.

In a joint statement Tuesday, Gov. Pat McCrory and state commerce secretary Sharon Decker announced that Enviva plans to spend more than $214 million to develop two new wood pellet mills, whose output will be shipped to Europe through the Port of Wilmington. One production facility will be sited in Richmond County and one in Sampson County.

If the company delivers on the 160 jobs it says the two facilities will create, Enviva will be eligible for 12 annual JDIG  payments totaling as much as $1.7 million, according to a news release.

Genardo said $22 million was allocated for JDIG grants overall in the 2013-15 funding cycle and that Enviva’s award has been approved by the state’s Economic Incentive Committee, providing the company is able to show it is meeting job creation and other grant requirements.

“We audit [JDIG recipient] companies every year” to ensure the company is living up to its end of the bargain, she said.

Under the terms of the company’s JDIG award, Enviva is eligible to receive the grants equal to 59 percent of the state personal income tax withholdings from the eligible new jobs it creates at the two mills, said Graham Wilson, a spokesman for the commerce department. Enviva’s award is based on the 12-year term covering the incremental addition of the 160 jobs.

Salaries will vary by job function, but the average annual wage for the planned jobs is expected to be $37,961, exceeding the average annual wage in both Richmond County ($30,788) and Sampson County ($30,735), according to the release.  

The prospect of providing tax incentives for Enviva is not without its critics.

“The state is investing in an industry whose growth is based on flawed science and false claims,” Adam Macon, campaign director for environmental organization Dogwood Alliance, said in an email. “Due to shifting energy policies in Europe that are currently driving the market, the biomass industry is poised to see a dramatic downward shift in its growth in the next two years. The Enviva plants are a risky economic investment, and will threaten North Carolina forests and water quality, and bring noise and dust pollution to communities.”

Another environmental advocate, the Southern Environmental Law Center, also opposes the growth of the wood biomass industry. In recent months as Enviva has pursued its plans for the port facility and for in-state mills, the center has maintained that the company's forestry practices are environmentally harmful and its manufacturing process pollutes air and water.

Enviva contests those claims.

“All of the wood that Enviva uses is a byproduct of the traditional saw timber industry,”  Elizabeth Woodworth, a company spokeswoman, told the Business Journal earlier this summer. "Because of Enviva’s stringent procurement policies, which are independently audited and certified under sustainable forestry guidelines, we can ensure that all harvests are undertaken using state-mandated Best Management Practices in harvest operations that protect the environment, including water-quality and sensitive ecosystems.”

“One of our goals in North Carolina Commerce is to help our existing industries expand and create more jobs,” Decker said in the joint news release. “Pursuing the development of these projects will bring new jobs to Richmond and Sampson Counties. In doing so, Enviva plans to make a sizeable investment in these North Carolina facilities, further helping rural communities and increasing our exports.”