Community Responses to Environmental Injustice
This "timeline" essay serves as a jumping-off point for more grounded documentation and analysis of the ways in which members of Environmental Injustice communities in Eastern North Carolina have r
Timeline of Biomass in Eastern North Carolina
This timeline documents the emergence and evolution of the biomass industry in Eastern North Carolina.
Clear Cut: Wood Pellet Production, the Destruction of Forests, and the Case for Environmental Justice
This pamphlet covers a wide range of issues concerning biomass in North Carolina.
North Carolina's Bet on Biomass Energy is Faltering, With Energy Targets Unmet and Concerns About Environmental Justice
This article discusses the complex economic issues that have arose in trying to subsidize biomass operations with government funds, which these operations rely on to function.
North Carolina Environmental Injustice Network
josiepatchAnnotation of
The North Carolina Environmental Injustice Network (NCEJN) is a grassroots coalition of community organizations that is predominantly organized and led by people of color. They work to expose and oppose institutionalized practices that create environmental injustice.
Their mission statement: "To promote health and environmental equality for all people of North Carolina through community action for clean industry, safe workplaces and fair access to all human and natural resources. We seek to accomplish these goals through organizing, advocacy, research, and education based on principles of economic equity and democracy for all people.”
Ways to get involved are linked here: https://ncejn.org/get-involved/
Fieldnotes: Who are the stakeholders?
josiepatchIn this essay the authors have highlighted some of the stakeholders in the fight against industrial biomass operations as members of the surrounding community who live with these operations as close as their own backyards, and experience the environmental pollution directly everyday. They highlighted Belinda Joyner, a resident of Northhampton County, and an environmental activist who rose to defend her community and their lands and livelihoods due to expanding hazardous infrastructures such as the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Enviva power plant. Other stakeholders besides activists and organziers such as Belinda include the people of Northampton County who attend hearings with government officials and take a stance agaisnt pollution, as well as organizations such as the Dogwood Alliance. The county is predominantly Black and working class, one of several in North Carolina that bear the brunt of exploittion and pollution by powerful biomass manufacturers such as Drax and Enviva.
This timeline essay provides more examples from recent years of community responses and collective action for environmental justice.
Article: "How marginalized communities in the South are paying the price for 'green energy' in Europe"
A CNN article from 2021 detailing the exploitation of rural Black communities in Estern North Carolina and other parts of the South by powerful Biomass manufacturers.
This article on theEnergy Justice Network website briefly descrbies the current biomass movement in communities across the US, including Eastern NC.