A letter signed by over 100 scientists across the world, including professors at University of North Carolina, urged Gov. Roy Cooper to implement forest restoration in his climate action plan, and immediately address the environmental problems caused by the expanding wood pellet industry. Dogwood Alliance, a forest-protection advocacy group based in Asheville, penned the letter in response to a proposed wood pellet mill in Hamlet. Enviva, the world’s largest producer of wood pellets, looks to make this their fourth facility in North Carolina alone. These wood pellets would be shipped to the United Kingdom, where they would be burned for biofuel as an alternative to coal. The idea is that burning wood can be a carbon-neutral, renewable energy source, as trees are one of the most effective absorbers of carbon from the atmosphere. The scientific community calls this a false assumption.