An industry built on a fallacy of carbon neutrality
Debra David has lived in Dobbins Heights, North Carolina, population 875, for more than 60 years. Though she has moved several times over the decades, she’s always lived close to the railroad and the town’s higher-traffic thoroughfares. But it wasn’t until very recently that she developed asthma.
In 2019 Enviva, a compressed wood pellet (also known as biomass) manufacturer, opened a new production plant in Hamlet, North Carolina, just down the road from David’s home. “I’d never had a problem with asthma before,” she says. “But the past two years, I started having it.”
And David isn’t alone — her entire neighborhood is experiencing the same health issues. “Of the eight houses on my block, every …