US forests threatened by EU energy demand

Published on August 30, 2013 07:27 by Aseem Murtaza

New maps and a report released recently (1) have revealed that endangered wetland forests in the US are under threat due to demand for biomass for energy from Europe. The report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Dogwood Alliance in the US (2) reveals that a major wood pellet manufacturing mill in North Carolina poses a massive ecological threat to surrounding endangered wetland forests. The facility produces approximately 400,000 tons of wood pellets per year to ship to Europe as electricity fuelled by biomass.

"Europe's increasing reliance on cutting trees for electricity is driving the destruction of precious ecosystems around the world. We cannot go on fooling European citizens with "green electricity" that is anything but." commented Ariel Brunner, Head of EU Policy at BirdLife Europe.

http://www.birdlife.org/community/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/20130829PR_USBiomass.pdf