US & Japanese Groups Call for Transparency on Wood Pellet Imports

Environmental organizations and advocacy groups are concerned about the environmental violations, pollution, and community health impacts associated with wood pellet production in the United States. Japan’s renewable energy subsidies have driven the expansion of the wood pellet industry in the United States and the ongoing, repeated nature of legal violations of pellet operations in the US indicate that there are not adequate remedies within US law to regulate the wood pellet industry. The Feed-In Tariff (FIT) gives Japan power as a buyer to set a higher standard for production, providing an opportunity to exclude sourcing from problem producers. Affected communities and individuals lack recourse and there is a need for the industry as a whole to ameliorate ongoing pollution and community rights violations.

In response to these concerns, we request that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which has jurisdiction over biomass energy policies, adopt the following standards and accountability mechanisms for wood pellet sourcing: 

1. Prohibit subsidies for any pellets produced at mills with legal violations in the US and beyond. This standard should apply both prospectively and retrospectively, requiring METI to investigate wood pellet mills within Japan’s supply chain to determine whether any of those mills are violating legal requirements or environmental permits, polluting over legal limits, and/or operating to the detriment of community health and well-being. If any violations are discovered, METI must immediately take action to revoke subsidies (or alternatively, level a heavy penalty/fine) to any FIT-certified operator sourcing from those mills until the power plant can demonstrate an alternative, compliant supply chain. Pellet mills or companies with repeated violations should be excluded from existing and future long-term contracts.
2. Increase transparency. Mandate that FIT-certified operators disclose all pellet mills within their supply chain and make these disclosures publicly available in full.  This list will serve both as a way to ensure compliance with the FIT’s legality requirement and a form of accountability for harm caused at sourcing sites.
3. Include public health standards as a criterion for sourcing in the Guidelines. In the US, wood pellet facilities have repeatedly caused harm to the health and well-being of communities living near pellet plants through excessive pollution that causes chronic respiratory issues and excessive noise that degrades quality of life for residents. Any buyers of wood pellets should hold their suppliers to a high standard of operating, ensuring that rights are upheld for communities living near pellet plants.
4. Require due diligence. When assessing if a supplier (mill) has legal or community rights violations, buyers should not rely on certification schemes as a means of verification. Instead, METI should require the companies to conduct due diligence of current and potential suppliers and to disclose the list of documentation issued by public authority to demonstrate the compliance or non-compliance of a mill to relevant environmental regulations.

Read the letter to METI

Read the Japanese Translation