Rita Vaughan Frost, on two proposed wood pellet plants in California, which will create industrial-scale facilities in Tuolumne and Lassen counties, exporting one million tons a year out of Stockton to overseas energy markets. Though it's being billed as a wildfire mitigation strategy, community members and advocates are concerned about the use of public funds for forest degradation, which will release carbon and harm critical carbon sinks. This will perpetuate severe wildfire conditions. The pellet production and transport emit toxic air pollution, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities. If approved, the pellets will be exported to global markets in Europe and Asia, even though Europe is increasingly restricting biomass as a qualified renewable energy source, as scientists and advocates have long called for. Link