Activists and a group of South Georgia residents are calling for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to adopt stricter oversight of wood pellet mills popping up across the region to feed global demand for biomass energy.
The call for federal action comes as residents of Cook County also have asked a Georgia judge to revoke a state air permit granted to one of two pellet plants planned in Adel, a small town of 5,500 between Tifton and Valdosta. Adel is roughly half white and half Black. But both pellet factories are planned for the western side of the city, where residents are predominantly people of color who say they already suffer from pollution from multiple industrial sources.
Wood pellets have become big business over the past 15 years nationally and in Georgia. Most pellets made in Georgia are exported to the United Kingdom and the European Union. The pellets are burned for electricity and some countries see biomass — fuel from organic sources, often wood — as a renewable alternative to coal.
