{"id":231964,"date":"2025-10-17T17:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T17:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/231964\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T17:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T17:12:08","slug":"mississippi-residents-sue-uk-owned-biomass-firm-granted-permit-for-more-emissions-mississippi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/231964\/","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi residents sue UK-owned biomass firm granted permit for more emissions | Mississippi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents of a small Mississippi<\/a> town are suing Drax Biomass after the company won a permit to become a \u201cmajor source\u201d of hazardous air pollution<\/a> at a local wood pellet production plant.<\/p>\n

The subsidiary of the FTSE 250 energy company was previously denied permission to increase emissions in the 900-person town of Gloster, Mississippi<\/a>, after local residents warned that they had already suffered serious adverse health consequences because of the operation.<\/p>\n

But in a reversal of the April decision, the Mississippi department of environmental quality (MDEQ) permit board on Wednesday granted Drax\u2019s Amite county wood pellet production facility a permit.<\/p>\n

The plant in Gloster converts trees sourced from southern US states into wooden pellets, which are burned as biomass fuel in Drax\u2019s huge power station in Selby, North Yorkshire, England.<\/p>\n

Drax is expected to receive more than \u00a310bn in UK renewable energy subsidies between 2012 and 2027 for its biomass generation, according to the thinktank Ember<\/a>, despite criticism from green groups and climate scientists which claim that the wood it uses to manufacture biomass pellets is not sustainably sourced.<\/p>\n

The company was found to have supplied inaccurate data<\/a> relating to its sourcing of biomass, leading to a \u00a325m ($33m) fine which was paid to the UK energy regulator. The company is currently being investigated by the UK\u2019s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and lawmakers in the UK have been reviewing the billions in renewables subsidies<\/a> the North Yorkshire plant receives.<\/p>\n

The new lawsuit against Drax alleges that the Amite county facility \u2013 which shares a fence line<\/a> with the larger community \u2013 has unlawfully exposed locals to excessive levels of chemicals and pollutants. It says those in turn have coated people\u2019s homes and put them at greater risk of diseases such as cancer and respiratory illness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case is about holding a multibillion-dollar foreign corporation accountable for poisoning a small Mississippi community,\u201d said Letitia Johnson, an attorney at Singleton Schreiber, which filed the lawsuit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Residents of Gloster\u2019s predominantly Black, low-income town have reported feeling dizzy, getting headaches and otherwise feeling unwell since the facility opened a decade ago, and they have expressed concern that any plans for increased emissions could worsen respiratory illnesses, heart disease and other health issues linked to the pollutants.<\/p>\n

The UK government has previously been accused of funding \u201cenvironmental racism\u201d<\/a> through the subsidies to Drax.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got dust falling all night,\u201d said<\/a> Jimmy Brown, who lives less than a mile from the plant, the conservation outlet Mongabay reported. \u201cYou got constant noise from the plant. You got odor. You got truck traffic [carrying tons of trees and chipped wood] all day, every day. That\u2019s what a lot of people don\u2019t understand. It\u2019s nonstop.\u201d<\/p>\n

The approval came despite the site\u2019s previous standards violations<\/a>, which resulted in a $250,000 fine last year for releasing over 50% more harmful pollutants than allowed and a $2.5m penalty in 2020 for underestimating volatile organic compound outputs over several years.<\/p>\n

After the permit decision this week in Mississippi, a Drax spokesperson said the company was \u201cpleased that the [permit board] has listened to the clear recommendations of its own technical staff, and the voices of Gloster community leaders, local businesses and a large number of our neighbors in Gloster\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Drax Biomass said it was aware of the lawsuit and while it could not comment on ongoing legal matters it would \u201cstrive to be a good neighbour in our communities and to support their wellbeing and prosperity\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a recent letter to Mississippi\u2019s governor, Tate Reeves, and the MDEQ permit board, 85 advocacy organizations expressed concern at the effect Drax\u2019s manufacturing has had on Gloster\u2019s residents and urged steps \u201cto ensure they can breathe clean, safe air\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom young children with asthma who are unable to play outside, to elderly residents reliant on costly breathing treatments, it is clear that Gloster is a community in crisis,\u201d the organizations wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who can afford to leave are doing so,\u201d they added, \u201cwhile those who remain are left to suffer worsening health.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents of a small Mississippi town are suing Drax Biomass after the company won a permit to become…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-231964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}