… Policymakers continue to push biomass in the form of wood pellets as a necessary, and cleaner, alternative to coal. … few consumers of this energy probably think twice about any local effects. “Over 75 per cent of wood pellet facilities are in environmental justice communities, with this figure rising to 100 per cent in North Carolina … These are typically “black communities with high levels of poverty and where people have little access to political power”. [In] Northampton, North Carolina, where nearly 60 per cent of inhabitants are black and over 20 per cent of the population lives in poverty [the] community feels it is a “dumping ground” where, because people are poor, wood pellet companies “think they can come and take advantage.”… Enviva vehemently denies any such claims. … “Suggesting that our fully controlled plants present health risks or cause dust to our neighbours is false and there is no data or evidence to support such speculation.”