North Carolina's environmental justice advisory board has called a special meeting in Raleigh Thursday evening to discuss the fast-growing wood pellet industry.
The advisory board requested the meeting in a September letter to state environmental secretary Elizabeth Biser.
The meeting comes as the world's largest wood pellet maker, Enviva, awaits state approval to expand its pellet plant in eastern North Carolina's Hertford County.
Board members told Biser in the letter that the industry negatively impacts communities with large non-white populations and high poverty, and expressed concern about a planned increase in logging for wood pellets.
The letter also said the industry does not help meet the state's clean energy goals.
Enviva has four plants in eastern and central North Carolina that process wood cut from local forests and ship it to Europe where it's burned at power plants.