NEW ORLEANS (AP) — British energy giant Drax Global, already under scrutiny for running afoul of environmental laws in multiple states, has disclosed to the state of Louisiana that its wood pellet production facilities emit hazardous air pollutants above their permitted limits.
Drax is a key provider for British utilities and one of the renewable energy industry’s largest players, earning $1.53 billion in profits last year. It operates seven wood pellet production facilities across four states and paid out $2.5 million in fines for violating air emissions limits in Mississippi in 2020 and $3.2 million pollution-related settlements in Louisiana in 2022.
Following pressure from lawsuits brought by environmental advocacy groups, the company agreed to install pollution controls in 2021 in its three production facilities across Mississippi and Louisiana.
But it appears that the new controls did not bring the company within its permitted limits for more dangerous chemicals known as hazardous air pollutants at its Louisiana plants. The company conducted testing in August 2023 and about six months later informed the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality that both facilities should be considered a “major source” of hazardous air pollutant emissions.
The tests revealed that Morehouse BioEnergy LLC and LaSalle BioEnergy LLC emitted high rates of probable carcinogens acetaldehyde and formaldehyde and a total of more than 38 tons per year of toxic or hazardous air pollutants emitted from each site, company documents said. The current permitted limit for each facility is 10 tons for a single pollutant or 25 tons for a combination of hazardous air pollutants.
Michelli Martin, a spokesperson for the company, said in an emailed statement that Drax chose to test the Louisiana facilities based on new industry data, and was intended to “ensure full transparency” with authorities and “make necessary updates in 2024.” Drax said it was applying to update its permit to allow for the higher amounts of emissions.
Drax had been able to avoid testing for these pollutants in Louisiana for years because the Clean Air Act contains a “loophole” for wood pellet production, allowing states to make these determinations on a case-by-case basis, said Patrick Anderson, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.
By contrast, Drax subsidiary Amite BioEnergy LLC in Mississippi has been required to test for hazardous air pollutants since 2021. Last year, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality notified Drax that its facility was in violation of permitted levels of hazardous air pollutants. The Drax facility in Mississippi is currently spending $200,000 on mitigation plans, which appears to be part of a penalty still under negotiation related to the site's hazardous air pollution violations, Anderson said.
Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality Spokesperson Jan Schaefer said the agency was unable to comment on issues that “remain a matter of open enforcement.”
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality did not respond to requests for comment.
Spurred by the EU’s classification of biomass as renewable energy, the wood pellet industry has rapidly grown in southern states despite concerns over its impacts on neighboring communities and the environment.
The predominantly Black community living near the Drax plant in Gloster, Mississippi, has been outspoken about the facility’s pollution in their community, saying it has increased asthma and led to unwanted exposure to air particles. But the two northern Louisiana communities, which share nearly identical plants to the one in Gloster, have lacked vocal opposition.
That’s because Drax has been an economic boon, said Kay King, CEO of the nonprofit Morehouse Economic Development Corporation, which helped bring Drax to rural Morehouse Parish.
King said the company was a lifeline for the region’s pine plantations and that it had “diligently” responded to pollution issues in the past.
Martin, the Drax spokesperson, stated that “in the event there is a need to engage with the community on mitigation actions, Drax will take aggressive action as determined and in cooperation with" the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.”
Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96.
FILE - Birds fly past a pile of wood used to make pellets during a tour of a Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. British energy giant Drax Global, already under scrutiny for running afoul of environmental laws in multiple states, including Mississippi, recently disclosed that its Louisiana wood pellet production facilities emit hazardous air pollutants above their permitted limits. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
A major storm spread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain across the southern United States on Wednesday, breaking snow records and treating the region to unaccustomed perils and wintertime joy.
From Texas through the Deep South, down into Florida and to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, snow and sleet made for accumulating ice in New Orleans, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Florida and other major cities.
At least three deaths were attributed to the cold as dangerous below-freezing temperatures with even colder wind chills settled in. Arctic air also plunged much of the Midwest and the eastern U.S. into a deep freeze, grounding hundreds of flights. Government offices remained closed, as were classrooms for more than a million students more accustomed to hurricane dismissals than snow days.
New Englanders know what to do in weather like this: Terry Fraser of Cape Cod, Massachusetts didn't have her trusty windshield scraper while visiting her new granddaughter in Brunswick, Georgia, so she used a plastic store discount card to remove the snow and ice from her rental SUV in a frozen hotel parking lot.
“This is what we do up north when you don’t have a scraper,” Fraser said. “Hey, it works.”
Frasier had one additional bit of advice: “Don’t use your credit card, because then you can’t go shopping.”
In Tallahassee, Florida, the Holmes family set their alarms early on Wednesday and found a snow-covered slope before it melted away. Nine-year-old Layla and 12-year-old Rawley used what they had: a boogie board and a skimboard.
“Gotta get creative in Florida!” mom Alicia Holmes said.
The record 10-inch (25-centimeter) snowfall in New Orleans was more than double what Anchorage, Alaska, has received since the beginning of December, the National Weather Service said.
“We’d like our snow back,” the weather service office in Anchorage joked in a post on X on Wednesday. “Or at least some King Cake in return.”
It also was warmer Wednesday morning in Anchorage than in New Orleans, Atlanta, Jacksonville or Charlotte, North Carolina, according to the weather service.
The snow and ice also closed highways — including many miles of the nation’s southernmost interstate, I-10, as it stretches from Florida to Texas. Especially prone to freezing were the elevated roads and bridges that run over Louisiana's bayous.
“Louisiana, if you can, just hang in there,” Gov. Jeff Landry said, warning that Tuesday’s “magical” snow day would turn dangerous Wednesday as conditions worsened.
Highways were deserted along long stretches in Louisiana and Georgia, where a jackknifed truck closed part of the snowy interchange between Interstate 16 and Interstate 95.
In Charleston, South Carolina, it took crews nearly 16 hours to reopen travel in one direction along the massive 2 1/2 mile (4 kilometer) Ravenel Bridge that carries about 100,000 vehicles a day.
The icy conditions plagued motorists in Georgia, where troopers responded to more than 1,000 calls for help. Hundreds of trucks backed up near a crash on Interstate 75 between Macon and Atlanta. Some motorists slept in their vehicles overnight as even a fire truck got stuck on the ice, DeKalb County authorities said. And police appealed to the owners of dozens of cars abandoned at the bottom of a glazed-over hill in Snellville to retrieve their vehicles as soon as it’s safe.
Some people took advantage of the Ravenel bridge’s steep overpasses, turning them into impromptu sled runs. On the Outer Banks, children sledded down snow-covered sand dunes near where the Wright Brothers first took flight, while adults tried to navigate waist-high snow drifts that had piled up on the Kitty Hawk Pier. A ferry system suspended service between the barrier islands.
“It’s maybe once every 10 years that we get a good one like this,” said Ryan Thibodeau, 38, co-owner of Carolina Designs Realty, a vacation rental company.
The storm that prompted the first ever blizzard warnings for some places along the Texas and Louisiana coast also covered the white-sand beaches of normally balmy Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Pensacola Beach, Florida. Snow covering South Carolina sand from Hilton Head Island to the giant Ferris wheel in Myrtle Beach created more opportunities to turn surf gear into sleds.
“It didn’t have the speed of a toboggan,” Alex Spiotta said as his family glided on a boogie board in Isle of Palms, South Carolina. “But in the South, you have to use what you have.”
Others went sledding in a laundry basket in Montgomery, Alabama, and pool-tubing down a Houston hill. A car pulled a skiier down a street in Pensacola, Florida. In Metairie, Louisiana, several nuns enjoyed throwing powdery snow at a priest. In New Orleans, a hockey player skated down Canal Street, while urban skiing was attempted along Bourbon Street and people went sledding down the snow-covered Mississippi River levees on kayaks, cardboard boxes and inflatable alligators.
Nearly 2,000 U.S. flights were canceled and 2,300 more were delayed by midday Wednesday, according to online tracker FlightAware.com.
Record demands for electricity to stay warm were met by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides power to more than 10 million customers in seven states, and PJM Interconnection, which operates the 13-state mid-Atlantic grid. But more than 100,000 customers were without power across the region Wednesday morning, including about 46,000 in Georgia and 37,000 in Florida, according to the website PowerOutage.us.
Two people died in the cold in Austin, Texas, which said emergency crews responded to more than a dozen “cold exposure” calls. In Georgia, authorities said one person died from hypothermia.
The storm prompted several sports-related postponements Wednesday night, including the NBA game between the Milwaukee Bucks at the New Orleans Pelicans, and the women’s college basketball game between No. 5 LSU at No. 2 South Carolina.
In Southern California, where blazes have killed at least 28 people and burned thousands of homes, Santa Ana winds and dry conditions worsened by climate chaange remained a concern.
Even as the United States, which is about 2% of the Earth’s surface, shivers through abnormally cold temperatures, the world as a whole is breaking heat records. So far, 2025 has had the hottest first 20 days of a year on record, according to Europe’s Copernicus climate service, breaking last year's record, according to data going back to 1940.
So far this year, U.S. weather has set or tied 697 daily records for coldest temperature, not much more than the 629 daily records reported so far this year for warmest temperatures for the date. In the past 365 days, U.S. weather stations have recorded five times as many heat records than cold, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Scientists say they seem to be seeing more frequent cold air outbreaks — but not cooler weather in general — and theorize that a warming Arctic is altering the jet stream and polar vortex to allow cold air to escape and plunge further south.
Payne reported from Tallahassee, Florida, and Bynum from Brunswick, Georgia. Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., and AP writers Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Jack Brook in New Orleans; Sara Cline in Key Largo, Florida; John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Jeff Martin in Kennesaw, Georgia; Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, contributed.
CORRECTS CITY TO HARAHAN NOT HARHAN People walk from the snow covered Mississippi River levee the day after a rare and record setting snowstorm in Harhan, La., a suburb of New Orleans, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Snowplows clear snow from Jefferson Highway the day after a rare and record setting snowstorm in River Ridge, La., a suburb of New Orleans, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
The entrance to the Hwy 146 Seabrook Kemah bridge over Clear Lake is closed Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025 following severe winter storms Tuesday. (Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle via AP)
An ice covered fountain sits in front of a Mardi Gras festooned skeleton the day after a rare and record setting snowstorm in River Ridge, La., a suburb of New Orleans, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Stacy Centanni refreshes their, Mardi Gras festooned snowman as it melts in the sun, the day after a rare and record setting snowstorm in River Ridge, La., a suburb of New Orleans, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Alex Spiotta, from the Isle of Palms, S.C., uses a boogie board to sled across the beach after a winter storm dropped ice and snow Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025, on the Isle of Palms, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)
Lina Rojas prepares her dachshund Petunia with a warm vest and gloves for her first walk in snow, in Tallahassee, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Kate Payne)
A beach walker heads to the ocean after a winter storm dropped ice and snow Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025, on the Isle of Palms, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)
Motorists drive in heavy snow on N. Davis Highway on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Pensacola, Fla. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
Gumbo Carlin, off New Orleans, takes a photo of his wife Tezrah Carlin in front of Jackson Square during a very rare snowstorm in New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Johnathan Duval, visiting from Jacksonville, Fla., takes in the snow during a very rare snowstorm in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
People walk on Bourbon Street during a very rare snowstorm in New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A man bundles up as he walks along the shore of snow-covered Lake Michigan during a cold day in Chicago, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Heavy snow falls onto the Florida Welcome Center on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025 in Pensacola, Fla. (Luis Santana /Tampa Bay Times via AP)
Icicles hang from a sign pointing the way to Houston during an icy winter storm on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025 in Galveston, Texas. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Cars backup near a hill with snow and ice on the road during a winter storm on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Tucker, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Workers plow snow off the roadways at the closed George Bush Intercontinental Airport Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
People walk in the French Quarter as snow falls in New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Kristyn Tramel walks her dog Bluey with her 8-year-old son Penn in the French Quarter, in New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A person pushes a wheelchair across Bourbon Street as snow falls in the French Quarter in New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A person walks on a snow covered street Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Adrian Santos, left, and Aaron Kenigsberg make a snowman along Buffalo Bayou in downtown Houston, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Alvaro Perez, who spent a night at the closed George Bush Intercontinental Airport, waits for the next flight out Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
People shovel snow off the sidewalk Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in downtown Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
People walk by the empty Cafe Du Monde restaurant in the French Quarter in New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Kristyn Tramel walks her dog Bluey with her 8-year-old son Penn in the French Quarter as they stop at the memorial for the victims of a deadly truck attack on New Year's Day in the French Quarter in New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
People take a walk in the neighborhood Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Abel Allen, in a Spider-Man suit, and Angel Tircuit walk on a snow covered bridge in New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Braedon McCants hits Thomas Pickell with a snowball as they snowball fights at Rice University campus Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Cars travel on a snow covered highway Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
An empty terminal is seen at the closed at George Bush Intercontinental Airport Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
All cancelled flights are shown on the flight board at the closed George Bush Intercontinental Airport Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
A United Airlines plane is parked at the closed George Bush Intercontinental Airport Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Icicles hang down from a vehicle during an icy winter storm in Galveston, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Snow falls as the memorial for the victims of a deadly truck attack on New Year's Day in the French Quarter is seen in New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A person stops to take a picture at Jackson Square as snow falls in the French Quarter in New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
People take a walk in the neighborhood Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
People walk around on Bourbon Street as snow falls in the French Quarter in New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A person sleds down a hill at Herman Park Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Heavy snow falls onto palm trees and the Florida Welcome Center on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025 in Pensacola, Fla. (Luis Santana/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
A man walks down Bourbon Street during a very rare snowstorm in New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
People walk as snow falls in New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
This photo provided by Michael Grimes of 409 Dronegraphy shows snow over Galveston Tx on the morning of Jan. 21, 2025. (Michael Grimes/409 Dronegraphy via AP)