World’s largest wood pellet company accused of ‘greenwashing’ in new SEC complaint
WASHINGTON D.C. — On Monday, the Southern Environmental Law Center filed a complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, urging the regulatory agency to investigate Enviva’s potentially misleading statements about its climate impact and sourcing practices.
Enviva, the world’s largest wood pellet manufacturer, operates ten facilities in the American South. These plants turn trees and parts of trees into wood pellets that are then shipped overseas and burned at utility scale for power, a process known as biomass energy. Enviva and other biomass energy companies claim to produce clean energy, but in reality burning trees for power releases more climate-warming pollution than burning coal. It also degrades forests, reducing their ability to capture and store carbon.
Still, Enviva tells investors and the broader public that burning wood pellets for electricity reduces lifecycle emissions of climate-warming carbon, decreases emissions compared to coal, and provides an immediate climate benefit. But these statements remarkably do not include emissions from the smokestacks of the biomass-burning power plants that Enviva supplies. Enviva’s justifications for omitting combustion emissions leave significant doubts about whether Enviva’s product can actually reduce net emissions.
“Time and time again, Enviva has failed to show their work and be straightforward about the climate impact of its operations,” SELC Senior Attorney Heather Hillaker said. “We are at a critical moment in the fight against climate change and we need proven strategies for decarbonization—not illusory math and carbon accounting loopholes.”
Enviva also makes potentially misleading statements about its sourcing practices, claiming its pellet mills only use residues, byproducts, or “low-value wood.” But investigations and whistleblower reports have shown that at times Enviva’s sourcing practices appear to violate its policies by using whole trees, including larger trees taken from clearcuts, mature forests, and land slated for conversion.
“Southern forests are incredibly valuable carbon sinks that play a key role in the fight against climate change. Cutting down forests and burning them for power is a lose-lose for the communities that rely on them and for the climate,” Hillaker said.
Enviva recently doubled down on its purported climate claims by applying for federal clean energy incentives that were created by the Inflation Reduction Act. Giving tax breaks to dirty biomass energy companies would undermine landmark climate legislation, contradict federal climate goals, and divert money from real clean energy solutions.
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