Britain's green power plant in north Yorkshire burnt wood from protected forests in Canada for fuel, leaked emails claim
- Leaked emails suggest Drax Group may have burned wood from protected Canadian forests.
- The company has received over £7 billion in public subsidies for claiming to use sustainable wood.
- The findings raise serious concerns about the environmental impact of Drax's fuel sourcing practices.
In North Yorkshire, Britain, leaked internal emails from Drax Group reveal that the company may have burned wood sourced from protected forests in Canada. The Drax power plant, which has been operational since 2012, primarily uses old logs and sawmill dust, but the emails suggest a likelihood of using wood from ecologically significant areas. This contradicts Drax's claims of using only sustainable wood, which has allowed the company to receive over £7 billion in public subsidies. An investigation by Ofgem found no deliberate misreporting by Drax, but the company failed to accurately record data regarding the wood imported between April 2021 and March 2022, leading to a £25 million payment to Ofgem's voluntary redress fund. The internal discussions among Drax executives highlighted concerns about the classification of wood sources, with some materials coming from old-growth forests recommended for protection by experts in British Columbia. The controversy intensified following a BBC Panorama documentary that accused Drax of sourcing logs from precious forests, prompting the company to respond by emphasizing the context of their internal communications. The situation raises significant questions about the sustainability of Drax's operations and the environmental impact of its fuel sourcing practices.