Mongabay: Financial downturn at Enviva could mean trouble for biomass energy

2023 is shaping up to be an all-time worst financially for the world’s largest maker of wood pellets for bioenergy, Enviva. In this photo, taken in December 2022 at Enviva’s smallest plant in Ahoskie, NC., trucks pull into the mill all day long, every day, to unload 40 tons of chipped wood from nearby forests to be pressed into wood pellets for export. Photo by Justin Catanoso

In this story, I write an unusual piece for Mongabay, but historically, a pretty common one for me — an analysis of a company in financial trouble. Mongabay doesn’t do many business stories. But when it is the business of the world’s largest maker of wood pellets for bioenergy serving the United Kingdom, European Union and Japan, this former business editor was eager to do the reporting.

Enviva is not only in financial trouble, with its once high-flying stock price in freefall, it is also facing legal jeopardy. In April, a class-action lawsuit was filed in the company’s home state of Maryland alleging Enviva has harmed its investors by mispresenting its sustainability credentials and long-term business viability. Reporting from my whistleblower story in December 2022 is cited in the lawsuit; the suit notes that Enviva’s stock dropped more than 9% after my Mongabay story posted.

Enviva has predicted that it intends to increase production from its 10+ pellet mills in the US Southeast from 6 million tons annually to 13 million tons by 2027. That growth — which will dramatically add to deforestation in a region prone to climate-related weather impacts where intact forests help cushion the blows — is now in question.