The company that runs Britain’s biggest power station has agreed to pay $3.2 million to settle air pollution claims against two of its wood pellet mills in northeast Louisiana, reports NOLA.com.
Each worth $1.6 million, the two settlements amount to the largest paid to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality in at least 10 years.
According to legal filings, England-based power company Drax broke several air quality rules at mills in the small communities of Bastrop and Urania. The mills produce pellets that are shipped to a Drax facility at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, before being shipped to the United Kingdom.
The settlements may be unusually large for DEQ, but they’re a drop in the bucket for for Drax, said Patrick Anderson, an attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project. The company reported record profits of $226 million for the first half of 2022. Read the entire story.