Over 185 community, business, and environmental organizations have opposed two wood pellet projects in California as part of a public comment period in regards to the projects.
The comment period, now closed, looked at the draft environmental impact report (DEIR) on two proposed Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR) plants that would produce more than one million metric tons of wood pellets per year drew comments from more than 45,000 individuals.
The proposed project would include two industrial-scale wood pellet processing facilities, one in the foothills of the Central Sierra Nevada Mountain range, in Tuolumne County, and one in the Modoc Plateau of Northern California, in Lassen County. The finished pellets would then be shipped by rail to the Port of Stockton for international shipping.
The project, according to Biomass magazine, includes three primary components.
- Forest treatment and restoration activities, which result in feedstock acquisition.
- Transportation and process of feedstock at the two pellet production facilities
- The ransportation of the finished wood pellets to a storage facility to be constructed at the Port of Stockton, California, for export to international markets.
In May, the GSNR said it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with British energy company, Drax, for the joint exploration of sustainable biomass opportunities, with a focus on advancing forest resilience and promoting green energy initiatives worldwide. The MOU provides a framework that allows GSNR and DRAX to assess opportunities for joint action, but does not commit either party to a business relationship.
The 90-day review period for the DEIR for GSNR's proposed forest resiliency demonstration project has officially ended. At this time, the submitted comments are being reviewed and will be responded to, as appropriate, as part of the development of the final EIR, which will be presented to the Golden State Finance Authority (GSFA) Board for final certification later in 2025.

GSNR’s proposed project is currently in the environmental review process under CEQA to ensure any and all potential impacts are identified, comprehensively evaluated, and mitigated to the fullest extent feasible. A significant step in this process was the public review and comment upon the DEIR. The DEIR was released for public review and comment on October 22, 2024, with a 90-day review period that closed in late January.
GSNR's proposed forest resiliency project would sustainably procure and process excess biomass produced as part of forest health initiatives into a pelletized fuel source (wood pellets) for use in renewable energy generation overseas, as a replacement for fossil fuels such as coal.
According to the GSNR, California’s forests are in a very unhealthy state: longer fire seasons, drought, invasive species, tree mortality, warmer temperatures, and the consequences of a century of unnatural fire suppression. The result is overgrown and under-managed forests that lead to catastrophic, unnatural fires with significant negative environmental impacts.
The GSNR said the Forest Resiliency Demonstration Project is a response to the "growing severity of wildfires in the western United States," which has been exacerbated by hazardous excess fuel loads in forests, and the need to enhance economic activity in California’s rural counties. The proposed project serves as an opportunity to help restore western forests, watersheds, and ecosystems to a more natural and resilient condition. Project components and operations will provide overall benefit to the region by sustainably procuring and processing excess biomass into a pelletized fuel source for renewable energy generation.
When GSNR's project is at full production, the following economic impacts are estimated for Lassen County.
- 65 full-ime jobs
- $412,000 annual tax revenue
- $188 million, annual economic impact
For Tuolumne County,
- 55 full-ime jobs
- $186,000 annual tax revenue
- $80.8 million, annual economic impact
And, the Port of Stockton,
- 8 full-ime jobs
- $148,000 annual tax revenue
- $29.2 million, annual economic impact
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), however, said "while the project rests on wildfire mitigation and forest resiliency, the DEIR fails to adequately explain how GSNR would achieve that goal, fails to evaluate alternatives that would actually reduce wildfire risk and admits it will cause significant air pollution impacts to communities and worsen the biodiversity and climate crises."
Opponents, the NRDC said in its statement, said the analysis included within the DEIR is "woefully insufficient, lacking critical details, and riddled with inaccuracies. Even based on their own analysis, this project is rife with “significant” adverse community, climate, and ecological impacts." For example, the NRDC reports that the facility in Lassen, which would produce 700,000 tons of wood pellets every year, the project’s emissions would exceed air pollution control district limits for dangerous air pollutants like particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), nitrogen oxide 1 (NOx), and carbon monoxide (CO).1
Rita Vaughan Frost, forest advocate at NRDC, "As if the biomass industry’s sordid environmental history isn't alarming enough, the impact report that GSNR released speaks for itself: This project is an ineffective attempt at wildfire prevention and a health hazard to communities across Northern California. It's time to reject this project, protect California's forests from industrial-scale extraction, and dedicate our time and resources to real solutions that will safeguard communities from wildfires."
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