DRAX
Biting the pellet
AS THE Financial Conduct Authority investigates potentially criminal misdeeds at tree-burning energy company Drax, information reaches the
Eye
which the FCA might add to its agenda,
Old Sparky writes
.
The authority needs to establish whether known falsehoods in Drax pronouncements about the sustainability of its fuel sourcing were made deliberately, recklessly or negligently. So investigators will be interested to learn then that, when Drax acquired Canadian wood pellet manufacturer Pinnacle in 2021, Drax staff and advisers conducting due diligence on the transaction raised red flags concerning the sustainability of Pinnacle’s wood pellets which fuelled Drax, then as now; and Pinnacle’s “class 2” logging licences for felling whole, healthy trees.