The Drax Group had proposed using regional wood products to help fuel overseas power plants
Bio miss: The “Drax dome” was removed shortly after being erected in 2024 in Longview, Wash. The company was fined for beginning construction prematurely. Photo: Diane Dick
By Nick Engelfried. January 7, 2026. Work appears to have stalled on a proposed Columbia River wood biomass energy export project, which Columbia Insight reported on in February 2024. The UK-based Drax Group said last month it’s pausing plans for the facility as part of a wider slowdown in capacity expansion caused by weak demand for its wood pellets.
The Drax plant would be built in Longview, Wash., where it would process up to 450,000 metric tons of wood annually, turning Pacific Northwest trees into pellets for export to overseas power plants.
Drax says wood biomass is a green, renewable energy source. However, environmental groups are concerned about the wood industry’s impact on forests and local air quality, as well as its lifecycle carbon emissions, which by some estimates rival those from coal.
In June 2024, Drax was fined by Washington’s Southwest Clean Air Agency for beginning construction on its Longview project prematurely. No major work seems to have taken place since then.
“Hopefully Drax’s pause on the Longview wood pellet plant will be permanent,” says Longview resident and environmental advocate Diane Dick. “Burning wood for energy is a false solution to combat global warming and climate change.”
Drax already operates plants in British Columbia that make wood pellets for export to Asia, which is also the most logical destination for the proposed Longview plant’s product.
The company has said Asian markets are becoming “challenged,” contributing to the closure of an existing plant in Williams Lake, B.C. Drax added it “does not currently expect to invest in additional capacity in the short to medium term, including the paused Longview project.”
While the Longview pellet plant is on hold for now, it could be resurrected. Drax could decide to resume work on the facility or sell the project to another company.
I wondered what had happened to the big white dome that suddenly appeared, then disappeared. As usual, none of us locals had any idea. Glad it’s gone. If you see the logging yards at the Port of Longview you begin to check the surrounding hills to see if there are any trees left. We’re already logging at a faster rate than is sustainable.
The EDB in Lewis County is marketing their forests for removal. If the residents of Lewis County understood the consequences of this selling out of our natural environment to a foreign interest, especially red voters would be 4-square opposed.