Louisiana lawmakers rush to support an industry they ‘do not know a lot about’

A bill aimed at increasing the number of wood pellet mills in Louisiana has sailed through the state’s Legislature — despite some lawmakers, including the bill’s sponsor, acknowledging they know little about the controversial industry. State Representative Chuck Owen, a Republican from Vernon Parish in west Louisiana, said he proposed House Bill 670 in February shortly after learning about the industry, which exports about $1 billion worth of pellets from Louisiana each year. Nearly all the production comes from two British-owned mills in central and north Louisiana that emit large — and sometimes illegal — quantities of air pollutants linked to cancers and other serious illnesses. Owen, whose district spans one of the state’s most timber-rich regions, said the goal of his bill is to make Louisiana a “premier location for wood pellet manufacturing.” The legislation gives a state agency, Louisiana Economic Development, broad direction to develop new incentives for pellet manufacturers, potentially including new tax breaks, state-funded workforce training programs, and port upgrades tailored to the industry’s needs. It also instructs state regulators to streamline permitting for pellet mills and review environmental and public safety rules that “impose unnecessary burdens on this emerging industry.” For Owen, talking during a meeting ahead of the vote, the rationale behind expanding pellet manufacturing is simple: “We have a lot of trees in Louisiana, and north of Bunkie, that’s about all we have,” he said, referring to a town in central Louisiana. “There’s a market craving wood pellets, and I think we should get further into it.” But when a fellow legislator asked him to describe one of the mills and “what exactly it produces,” Owen admitted he was only vaguely familiar with it. “I do not know a lot about it,” he said. “No, sir, I do not. I know they’ve had some struggle in recent years, but I know that they’re there.” Despite that uncertainty, Louisiana’s House and