Burned: Are Trees the New Coal?
A film by Alan Dater and Lisa Merton
Watch the trailer here
 
BURNED tells the little-known story of the accelerating destruction of our forests for fuel, and probes the policy loopholes, huge subsidies, and blatant green washing of the burgeoning biomass electric power industry. BURNED is a feature-length documentary, which takes an unwavering look at the latest electric power industry solution to climate change. The film tells the story of how woody biomass has become the fossil-fuel industry’s renewable, green savior, and of the people and parties who are both fighting against and promoting its adoption and use.

Through interviews with activists, experts, and citizens, along with verité-style footage shot across the U.S. and in the EU and UK, the film interweaves the science of climate change, the escalating energy-policy disputes, the dynamics of forest ecology, the biomass industry practices, the conflict between jobs and trees, and the actions of activists and citizens who are working to protect their own health, their communities, the forest, and the planet’s climate.

About the Local Campaign:

350PDX, the Pacific Northwest Forest Climate Alliance, and our allies are gearing up for a new campaign against British energy giant Drax, who has proposed building a wood biomass processing and export facility in Longview, Washington. This plant would use one million tons of wood each year, to grind into pellets and ship to east Asia for burn in industrial power plants. We are learning from our allies in the Dogwood Alliance about the devastation these biomass plants have wrought on forests and communities in the south, and we’re gearing up to keep Drax out of the NW. The first step in this campaign is learning more about the dangers of biomass, so we're looking forward to gathering together at the start of 2024 for this film screening, discussion, and Q&A.