A local advocacy group known as BV Clean Air Now, along with Conservation North, penned a letter to the provincial Minister for Environment and Climate change George Hayman, calling on him to suspend permits for Drax wood pellet plant in Northern, B.C.

The letter to Minister Hayman alleges that Newpro, the former pellet plant proponent, misled the government and local communities about the kind of wood they use to make pellets. 

"Originally the company set up the pellet plant to utilise slash piles and wood debris from forest operations that would otherwise be left in the forest or burn up in forest fire," said Len Vanderstar, a director of BV Clean Air Now. "Thus creating a value added product and improving air quality throughout the Bulkley Valley, which would save more than 1,200 slash piles from burning up each year. But that's not what happend. It looks like they are using whole logs to make these pellets."

The pellets are industrial size, almost the size of a pop can, that are shipped to the United Kingdom to generate electricity in former coal fired electoral stations to lower their dependance of coal powered electricity. The permit was granted and the pellet plant went into operation. 

Since then the pellet plant has been purchased by the Drax Group in the UK. BV Clean Air Now says the company isn’t using slash at all and is using full logs to make these pellets and that their  permit should be suspend until the company can prove it utilises slash piles as well as how many slash piles it utilises even year. 

The pellet plant in Smithers alone supports around 30 jobs in the community, Vanderstar believes there is a better way to utilise slash piles and says facilities like the Drax plant are displacing pulp and paper operation in BC’s north that actually generate more economic benefit than a pellet plant. 

However, there are at least a half dozen of these Drax pellet plants in Northern BC, employing hundreds of workers billed as a renewable energy product. Still, BVCAN, says what is being labelled as a renewable product may not be renewable at all. 

Listen to the full episode on CICK NEWS below.

*Although we reached out to Drax’s Communications Manager for Canada, Caroline Bleay, for the company’s response to the request to suspend their pellet plant permits, they have yet to answer our inquiries.