Today, Active Energy agreed to sell the site for $4.65 million to Phoenix Investors LLC, a commercial real estate company focused on revitalizing former manufacturing facilities, marking the end of plans to build a wood pellet plant for export to Europe and Asia. «Since the day this facility was commissioned seven years ago, it has seriously violated the important requirements of the Clean Air Act that protect the health of the community,» said Amy Dinn of Lone Star Legal Aid. «It is extremely disappointing that Woodville Pellets now wants to wait at least another two years to fix the problem.» When the plant was built in 2012, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) limited the plant`s VOC emissions to 64 tons per year. However, in 2015, German Pellets admitted that the plant emitted at least 580 tons of VOCs per year, almost ten times the legal limit. It also meant that the plant would have had to be approved as the main source of air pollution under the Clean Air Act, which would have required much stricter emission controls. On May 2, 2022, 4C and 13 other public interest organizations again submitted comments expressing concerns about inadequate air pollution controls and information to assess the plant`s potential impact on the local community. Wood pellet plants release air particles that cause air quality problems and are linked to serious health problems such as asthma and heart disease. These harmful facilities are often built near predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods, perpetuating a legacy of environmental injustice in areas already struggling with an unfair share of pollution. Investors in the industrial conglomerate accuse him of misleading them about his foray into the wood pellet factory trade. Their complaint «does not meet strict standards» for securities fraud prosecutions, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee said. «Living with smoke, dust and pollution from this facility in our backyard has been a nightmare since Woodville Pellets took over operations,» said plaintiff Dustin Stafford.
«We`re not trying to close the plant, we just want the plant to comply with the law and the company to be a good neighbour here in Woodville.» Lone Star Legal Aid`s mission is to protect and promote the civil rights of millions of Texans living in poverty in its 76-county service area by providing free advocacy, legal advocacy, and community education that ensures equal access to justice. www.lonestarlegal.org/ «The West Adel community is already facing several environmental issues: contaminated groundwater, foul odors associated with a local propane business, the existing pellet plant, and now this. The planned Spectrum pellet plant alone would be problematic. In addition to the existing damage in the neighborhood, its operation is more than untenable. None of us would want the same daily environmental threats in our own neighborhoods, and the proper functioning of civil liberties and environmental law should not allow the citizens of West Nobility to do so,» said Chandra Taylor-Sawyer, Director of the SELC Environmental Justice Initiative. «EPD has a unique opportunity to gain the right to people living near the facility proposed by Spectrum and revoke the permit.» Active Energy Renewable Power, the company behind a controversial wood pellet plant project in Lumberton, suffered another legal setback in Federal Court this week. On November 19, 2021, 4C and 14 other public interest organizations submitted comments against Spectrum`s permit application, expressing concerns that the application was incomplete and did not contain sufficient information to assess the potential impact of the facility. BOND, Miss. A Maryland company that makes wood pellets for use as an energy source announced Tuesday that it will build its third production plant in Mississippi. CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – In light of ongoing issues and lawsuits against illegal pollution at its Lumberton, North Carolina plant, Active Energy Group today announced an agreement to sell the site, halting plans to build a controversial wood pellet plant. «We`ve seen a lot of wood pellet plants emit large amounts of illegal pollution, but most of these plants quickly put in place the additional controls needed to operate within the law,» said Patrick Anderson, an advocate for the Environmental Integrity Project.
«Woodville Pellets could and absolutely should do the same as soon as possible, but they are delaying their feet and forcing us to file this lawsuit.» The Environmental Integrity Project and Lone Star Legal Aid today filed a lawsuit in federal court against a wood pellet plant located about 90 miles northeast of Houston for violating the Clean Air Act, emitting hundreds of tons of illegal VOC pollution and tens of tons of hazardous air pollutants (PAHs) per year. «Since the initial proposal for Spectrum, concerned citizens in Cook County have alerted Director Dunn that a second plant of harmful wood pellets in Adel would harm the health of residents by further reducing air quality and increasing cases of asthma, heart disease, lung disease and other diseases,» says Dr. Dunn.