Drax promotes itself as a sustainable energy company, yet they remain the UK’s biggest carbon polluter. The company stands accused of poisoning the Southern US communities where they source the majority of their wood pellet fuel. Apparently reluctant to be confronted with campaigners and US community representatives, Drax’s board will not appear in person at their upcoming annual meeting.
Greenwashing & environmental racism
Drax’s business model relies on sourcing wood from forests all over the world, turning it into pellets. These pellets are then shipped to the UK and burned in its Yorkshire power station. Is this clean, sustainable or renewable energy? Absolutely not. But by claiming that it is, Drax has enjoyed billions in financial support from the UK government. Last year alone, they received a record £999 million in these subsidies, which are funded by the UK public via our energy bills.
According to their own reports, burning wood pellets at Drax power station releases 14,000,000 tonnes of CO2 each year – that’s more than the UK’s six largest gas power stations combined. But both Drax and the UK government use an unscientific, repeatedly debunked idea to claim these emissions don’t count towards their climate impact. Unfortunately for Drax, and for all of us alive on this planet, their creative carbon accounting won’t fool the atmosphere.
The problems with Drax’s operation start long before the pellets are burned in the UK. Drax have been repeatedly exposed for making misleading sustainability claims about the wood they source. They also routinely violate air quality laws in the areas surrounding their US pellet mills.
These mills are often built in low-income, majority-Black communities, such as Gloster, Mississippi. Residents there have organised to sue Drax, reporting devastating health impacts as a direct result of the company’s pellet production.
Katherine Egland is an NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) director who has witnessed the “misery” caused in places like Gloster, carried out in the name of supposedly green energy for the UK. Speaking about the public funding that continues to flow to Drax, Egland told an Unearthed investigation in 2022:
My message to the UK government is that you are subsidising environmental racism.
Avoiding accountability
It’s no surprise that Drax’s annual shareholder meetings (AGMs) have been the target of protests. They are picketed by various environmental and social justice campaign groups. At the past three AGMs, protestors from ‘Axe Drax’ have interrupted the opening speeches, leading to activists being promptly, sometimes forcibly, removed by security guards.
Perhaps even more uncomfortable for the board than these disruptive protests has been the presence of Egland and Gloster community member Dr Krystal Martin. They travel to the meeting from Mississippi each year to represent the concerns of the people living – or attempting to live – in the pellet mill’s shadow. But last year, Martin says they were “not allowed to speak” after the board abandoned the meeting early. Egland and Martin see this decision as part of a pattern of:
intentional and deliberate attempts to silence our voices.
In their announcement of this year’s AGM, Drax’s chairperson explained that the board would not be attending in person. They stated:
we are evolving our AGM format in the interests of the safety and security of attendees and participants.
To the communities forced to breathe toxic air around Drax’s plants, the suggestion that nonviolent protests have made the meeting unsafe for executives must be especially galling. In a letter to CEO Will Gardiner, requesting an explanation for his decision not to attend the London AGM, Egland writes:
If Drax has nothing to hide, why not face us directly?
Merry Dickinson from the Stop Burning Trees Coalition has her suspicions as to why. She says:
From their lying executives down to their deadly business practices in the US and Canada, Drax is a disaster. Drax knows this, and that’s why they’re once again running from the truth. It’s nothing short of pathetic.
Intimidation tactics
Meanwhile, in the days leading up to the AGM, young people supposedly associated with Axe Drax have had North Yorkshire Police knock on their doors for a ‘friendly chat’. According to the activists, they were asked whether they plan to attend the upcoming meeting or intend to organise against it.
This is not the first time the police have pre-emptively intervened on Drax’s behalf. Over 1000 police officers were reportedly involved in a £3 million operation that shut down a peaceful protest camp before it could happen. Following the arrest of 22 activists, the case against those charged was thrown out in September due to lack of evidence.
Featured image via Kirk Pritchard
By Abi Perrin
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