Jeremy Wates<\/a>, the\u00a0Secretary General of the\u00a0European Environment Bureau<\/a> in Brussels, explains in a letter to Britain’s The Independent<\/em>\u00a0newspaper how there is ‘Nothing green about burning wood for electricity<\/em><\/a>‘<\/strong><\/p>\n By burning wood pellets instead of coal Drax power station has turned green, according to your report \u201cGreen energy: How one power plant chips away at the UK\u2019s carbon footprint\u201d (5 January). We would strongly disagree.<\/p>\n The pellets for Drax are coming from the forests of south-east America where pellet exports have dramatically increased in recent years. The European Commission has this week opened an investigation to assess whether UK government plans to support the conversion of part of the Drax plant to operate on biomass are in line with EU state aid rules.<\/p>\n Wood pellets from the US are not made of only low-grade waste wood or residues that serve no other use. A majority of the pellets are made of whole, hardwood trees, harvested by vast clear cuts. A study by the American Forest & Paper Association confirmed that 76 per cent of the feedstocks used to produce pellets is pulpwood that could also be used for paper, packaging or wood panels.<\/p>\n