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It is an historic victory for California's forests: We have stopped the controversial wood pellet biomass industry from establishing a beachhead here.
The board of Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR), an organization working with U.K. mega-polluter Drax Group to set up this forest-damaging electricity-generating business in California, recently voted to drop its plans to build two pellet factories and an export terminal in the state.
The two plants would have gobbled up whole trees in a 100-mile radius around each of them—one plant in Lassen County and the other in Tuolumne County— then shipped the combined one million tons of pellets per year to the Port of Stockton.
The reasons GSNR cited for its decision were "current biomass market conditions"—mainly, European Union countries and South Korea starting to pinch off the massive subsidies needed to keep this industry afloat—and broad-based public opposition.
An environmental impact report (EIR) for the project wrapped up its public comment period in January. If you were one of the Forests Forever supporters who commented in opposition to this project, thank you! Grassroots outcry makes a huge difference.
Scroll to the bottom of this alert to RESOURCES for more on this watershed victory.
What comes next? GSNR will pivot to producing wood chips for an as-yet-undefined domestic market. A revised EIR is expected in early 2026.
As for now, celebrate!
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Paul Hughes
Executive Director
Forests Forever
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RESOURCES →
- The GSNR victory culminated a campaign that began in 2022 when Biofuelwatch raised the alarm on what became known as the Forest Resiliency Demonstration Project. Biofuelwatch has posted a detailed chronology of the effort.
- This DeSmog article provides a good overview of the demise of the Drax/GSNR pellet-fuels scheme.
- Here is the final Draft Environmental Impact Report comment letter signed in January 2025 by 185 organizations including Forests Forever.
- The biomass threat has been developing over many years. Forests Forever raised the issue with this 2020 alert focused on this threat to the climate and to California's forests. Our broad-based grassroots canvass programs subsequently spread and amplified the message.