Enviva’s proposed Ahoskie expansion would cut many emissions but add greenhouse gases

With concerns about climate change and environmental justice, advocates from across North Carolina on Tuesday opposed a Maryland company’s plans to expand a wood pellet mill in Ahoskie even as the local business community pledged its support for the expansion.

Enviva, headquartered in Bethesda, Md., is seeking an air quality permit from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality that would allow it to increase its annual production at Ahoskie from 481,000 tons of pellets annually to 630,000 tons of pellets annually. By installing equipment that effectively prevents dangerous emissions by burning them, Enviva hopes to be able to use more softwood trees, like pine, to make pellets.

Environmental advocates question why Enviva hasn’t installed the pollution controls before now and argue that increasing production means the destruction of more forest in Eastern North Carolina, potentially exacerbating flooding and literally cutting down the region’s ability to capture carbon dioxide. Increasing the plant’s capacity would also lead to more greenhouse gas emissions during the production process.

At four North Carolina plants including the one in Ahoskie, Enviva takes wood from North Carolina forests and turns it into pellets — more than 2.5 million tons of pellets per year — that are shipped to Europe.

The pellets are burned in lieu of coal under a controversial European Union policy that classifies them as a green source of energy despite the fact that burning the pellets releases more atmosphere-warming carbon dioxide than burning coal.

Enviva’s plant is at the eastern edge of an Ahoskie commercial district. Moments before Tuesday’s hearing, a cloud of steam was visible, emerging from the plant from more than a mile away, staying clearly in view as a driver passed a grocery store, car washes and fast food restaurants.

In addition to the Ahoskie facility, Enviva also operates pellet mills in Faison, Hamlet and Northampton. As a condition of 2019 settlements with Clean Air Carolina and DEQ, Enviva agreed to add catalytic oxidizers and thermal oxidizers to its Faison and Hamlet plants.

Members of Ahoskie’s business community joined government officials and Enviva employees Tuesday in calling on DEQ to approve the permit. Environmental advocates urged the agency to either deny the permit or require stricter monitoring.

‘Not trivial harms’

Throughout the hearing, Enviva officials and some community members touted the company’s support for things like defibrillators at the senior center, turkey donations for Thanksgiving, and equipment allowing the local fire company to achieve a higher rating, thus lowering insurance rates.

Amy Braswell, the executive vice president of the Ahoskie Chamber of Commerce, said 86 families benefit directly from work at the Enviva plant, which has also resulted in growth for the area’s trucking industry.

“We do not have the luxury that people in other places do to get other jobs and these families are very, very thankful and very appreciative,” Braswell said.

Nobody who lives in Ahoskie spoke against the plant during Tuesday’s hearing.

To environmental groups, those donations and jobs for some do not make up for the emissions Enviva has released into Ahoskie’s air since starting operations at the plant in 2011.

Emily Zucchino, a campaign organizer at the Dogwood Alliance, said the company should have installed the more stringent air quality controls it is now proposing before it started operating.

“I am saddened that our North Carolina community is being divided by corporations who make us choose between jobs on one hand and our health and environment on the other,” Zucchino said.

Zucchino was one of several advocates to call for DEQ to deny the permit or at least require Enviva to constantly monitor its emissions.

Enviva purchased the facility in 2010 and retrofitted it before starting operations in 2011. Yana Kravtsova, Enviva’s executive vice president of international markets and public affairs, said that is why the thermal oxidizer isn’t part of emissions controls there. The other plants in North Carolina all have the oxidizers.

Pine wood creates a wood pellet that burns at higher heats, Kravtsova said, emitting more volatile organic compounds as it is turned into a pellet.

“The pine increases the volatile organic compounds and thermal oxidizers incinerate those compounds. So it’s an investment for us,” Kravtsova said.

By adding the thermal oxidizer, the Ahoskie facility could decrease some emissions even as it adds production. For example, it would cut the potential amount of tiny particulates called PM2.5 produced by the plant from 129.63 tons to 45.49 tons per year and decrease volatile organic compound emissions from 391.6 tons to 125.43 tons per year.

But additional production would also spike the amount of greenhouse gases released from the Enviva plant, increasing the annual potential from 162,292 tons to 238,661 tons.

Jasmine Washington, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, called on DEQ to consider the wider impact of allowing the Enviva facility to expand. Adding production capability, Washington said, would bring increased truck traffic, odor and dust to the surrounding community.

“These are not trivial harms for the families that will be burdened by these harms every day,” Washington said, adding that DEQ also hadn’t considered the 35 other permits or environmental incidents within a one-mile radius of the Enviva facility.

Others opposed to the facility pointed to uncertainty around the European regulation that effectively creates Enviva’s business model.

A European question

Earlier this year, the European Parliament’s environment committee voted to remove woody biomass — wood pellets — from the sources that members of the European Union can count toward their renewable energy targets. But that was followed in July by the Parliament’s committee on Industry, Research and Energy voting to support current policies pushing for pellet production.

During Tuesday evening’s public hearing, environmental advocates urged DEQ to consider the increasing skepticism among European countries about biomass as a fuel source.

In addition to the environment committee’s vote, they pointed to comments the UK’s business secretary made last week. As reported by the Financial Times, Kwasi Kwarteng said shipping pellets from the US “doesn’t make any sense” and “isn’t sustainable.”

During Tuesday’s public hearing, Cindy Elmore, a communications professor at East Carolina University, said, “What Enviva wants to do, metaphorically speaking, is make hay while the sun shines and take down as many trees as possible as quickly as possible, no matter where they’re located.”

Enviva officials remain optimistic about the European Parliament’s regulatory activity. Wood pellets, Kravtsova said, are not only an integral part of what the European Union classifies as renewable energy but also a necessary source of energy security.

As member countries move away from coal, they need a source of hot-burning fuel to use for things like cement production, steel production and, potentially, sustainable aviation fuel. Enviva officials want their product to fill in those gaps.

“The industry has growth,” Kravtsova said. “It may be different, shifting into the new applications, and we’re looking at and exploring that.”

Anyone interested in the facility can submit comments by sending an email to publiccomments@ncdenr.gov with the subject line “Enviva Ahoskie 20B” or by calling 919-707-8446 and leaving a voicemail. The deadline for public comments is 5 p.m. Friday.

This story was produced with financial support from 1Earth Fund, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.