The Raging Grannies were among about 30 protesters outside Enviva's office in Raleigh. (Photo: Lisa Sorg)
Enviva, the world’s largest manufacturer of wood pellet fuel with plants in North Carolina, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday and plans to restructure, according to the company. The bankruptcy includes 21 of the company’s subsidiaries, including Enviva’s plants in Garysburg, in Northampton County; Ahoskie, in Hertford County, Hamlet, in Richmond County, and Faison, in Sampson County. However, those plants continue to operate.
A Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a company to delay paying creditors while it reorganizes, with a court’s permission.
Enviva owes money to several North Carolina companies, court filings show, with the largest creditors being Ezzell Trucking, in Harrells, $1.5 million, and Electrical Equipment Company in Raleigh, $332,000.
In November 2023, the company announced it was experiencing serious financial trouble and last month it missed a bond payment.
The company has $500 million to $1 billion in assets, according to court filings, and $1 billion to $10 billion in liabilities.
Enviva purports to be a “sustainable” and “renewable” global energy company specializing in producing wood pellets for fuel. In truth, it cuts forests, including hardwoods, which releases carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, into the air. The company then grinds the trees into pellets at its factories, polluting nearby communities.
In North Carolina, the pellets are then shipped by rail to the Port of Wilmington and then across the oceans — the transport of which releases more carbon dioxide — to Europe, Britain and Japan. And finally, those countries burn the pellets instead of coal, again emitting tons of carbon dioxide.
Because of the wood pellet industry’s significant contributions to climate change and environmental injustice, opponents, such as the Dogwood Alliance and the NAACP, have fought Enviva’s expansion plans and air permits. At the company’s four plants in North Carolina, Enviva produces 2.5 million tons of pellets and hundreds of thousands of tons of air pollutants per year. All of these neighborhoods are predominantly low-income, nonwhite or both.
“The company’s failure is an opportunity for local, state, and federal governments, communities and companies to work together to build a more regenerative economy,” said Danna Smith, executive director of Dogwood Alliance, in a prepared statement. “Enviva must be held accountable and cannot be allowed to cut and run. They must pay for the damage they have done to our communities’ health.
“We know Enviva is looking for a taxpayer bailout. They’ve applied for IRA subsidies,” Smith said. “That would be a huge waste of taxpayer money. The Biden Administration should direct public dollars to support the communities and workers impacted by the company.”
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