Drax will keep raising carbon emission levels until 2050s
{Drax will keep raising carbon emission levels until 2050s and this is just from the plant at Drax. The other emissions caused by this ludicrous business are not counted. Earth and Leaf Editorial}
{extract below}
Raising Carbon Emission Levels
Drax will keep raising carbon emission levels until the 2050s despite using carbon capture technology, according to scientific research.
The large power plant in North Yorkshire is a significant generator of electricity for the UK but has faced repeated criticism of its business model of burning wood pellets sourced from forests in the US and Canada.
The new study found that the intensive forest management needed to source 7m tonnes of wood pellets from forests in the US to burn as fuel every year would erode the carbon stored in the ecosystems of these pine forests for at least 25 years.
Drax was once one of the largest coal power plants in Europe but its owners claim that its switch to burning wood pellets means it is now a source of “carbon-neutral” electricity because the emissions produced from its chimney stacks are offset by the emissions absorbed by the trees grown to produce the pellets.
The research was based on a 2021 peer-reviewed analysis of the carbon emissions associated with using biomass pellets sourced from three Drax-owned mills in the southern US and combusted to generate about 4% of the UK’s electricity.