"US communities near pellet mills complain of fumes while experts say burning wood is a ‘disaster’ for climate change"

"It is touted as a smart way for Europe to reach its renewable energy goals. But try telling Lisa Sanchez thousands of miles away in America that burning wood chips is a form of clean energy.

The bucolic charm of her rural home in the Piney Woods forest region of east Texas is undercut by the big German Pellets manufacturing plant just beyond the bottom of her garden. The German-owned plant is capable of producing 578,000 tons of wood pellets a year, which are destined to cross the Atlantic to satisfy a vibrant market for the product there.

Sanchez moved to the eight-acre property in Woodville, a hundred miles north-east of Houston, in 2014. As she sat by her pool on a sunny evening last week, two horses grazing in her field, it was easy to understand why she and her husband Tony swallowed their doubts about the location."

Tom Dart and Oliver Milman report for the Guardian June 30, 2018. [2]