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Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South to feed the European Union’s recent push for renewable energy but residents near manufacturing plants -- often those in poor, rural swaths -- believe the process is making people sick. (AP video by Stephen Smith) Die & Mold
Birds fly past a pile of wood used to make pellets during a tour of a Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South to feed the European Union’s push this past decade for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels like coal. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Shelia Mae Dobbins holds part of her oxygen tube inside her home in Gloster, Miss., Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Dobbins feels her life — and health — were better before Drax began compressing tons of wood chips nearby. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Shelia Mae Dobbins walks with her oxygen tube inside her home in Gloster, Miss., Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Dobbins feels her life — and health — were better before Drax began compressing tons of wood chips nearby, (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Shelia Mae Dobbins cries as she talks about her health inside her home in Gloster, Miss., Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Dobbins feels her life — and health — were better before Drax began compressing tons of wood chips nearby. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Dan Caston, an employee of Drax leads a tour of their plant in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South to feed the European Union’s push this past decade for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels like coal. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Dan Caston, an employee of Drax, shows some of the wood pellets their plant produces in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South to feed the European Union’s push this past decade for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels like coal. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A resident crosses the street for a community meeting regarding health complaints against Drax in Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Krystal Martin, a Gloster native, shows pamphlets to residents Myrtis Woodard and Shelia Mae Dobbins, right, during a community meeting she organized regarding health complaints against the Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Krystal Martin, a Gloster native, shows pamphlets during a community meeting she organized regarding health complaints against the Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A man crosses the street in downtown Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
An employee walks toward a pile of lumber to be used during a tour of a Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South to feed the European Union’s push this past decade for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels like coal. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South to feed the European Union’s recent push for renewable energy but residents near manufacturing plants -- often those in poor, rural swaths -- believe the process is making people sick. (AP video by Stephen Smith)
Birds fly past a pile of wood used to make pellets during a tour of a Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South to feed the European Union’s push this past decade for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels like coal. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Birds fly past a pile of wood used to make pellets during a tour of a Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South to feed the European Union’s push this past decade for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels like coal. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Shelia Mae Dobbins holds part of her oxygen tube inside her home in Gloster, Miss., Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Dobbins feels her life — and health — were better before Drax began compressing tons of wood chips nearby. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Shelia Mae Dobbins holds part of her oxygen tube inside her home in Gloster, Miss., Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Dobbins feels her life — and health — were better before Drax began compressing tons of wood chips nearby. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Shelia Mae Dobbins walks with her oxygen tube inside her home in Gloster, Miss., Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Dobbins feels her life — and health — were better before Drax began compressing tons of wood chips nearby, (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Shelia Mae Dobbins walks with her oxygen tube inside her home in Gloster, Miss., Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Dobbins feels her life — and health — were better before Drax began compressing tons of wood chips nearby, (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Shelia Mae Dobbins cries as she talks about her health inside her home in Gloster, Miss., Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Dobbins feels her life — and health — were better before Drax began compressing tons of wood chips nearby. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Shelia Mae Dobbins cries as she talks about her health inside her home in Gloster, Miss., Wednesday, May 29, 2024. Dobbins feels her life — and health — were better before Drax began compressing tons of wood chips nearby. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Dan Caston, an employee of Drax leads a tour of their plant in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South to feed the European Union’s push this past decade for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels like coal. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Dan Caston, an employee of Drax leads a tour of their plant in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South to feed the European Union’s push this past decade for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels like coal. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Dan Caston, an employee of Drax, shows some of the wood pellets their plant produces in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South to feed the European Union’s push this past decade for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels like coal. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Dan Caston, an employee of Drax, shows some of the wood pellets their plant produces in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South to feed the European Union’s push this past decade for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels like coal. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A resident crosses the street for a community meeting regarding health complaints against Drax in Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A resident crosses the street for a community meeting regarding health complaints against Drax in Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Krystal Martin, a Gloster native, shows pamphlets to residents Myrtis Woodard and Shelia Mae Dobbins, right, during a community meeting she organized regarding health complaints against the Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Krystal Martin, a Gloster native, shows pamphlets to residents Myrtis Woodard and Shelia Mae Dobbins, right, during a community meeting she organized regarding health complaints against the Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Krystal Martin, a Gloster native, shows pamphlets during a community meeting she organized regarding health complaints against the Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Krystal Martin, a Gloster native, shows pamphlets during a community meeting she organized regarding health complaints against the Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A man crosses the street in downtown Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A man crosses the street in downtown Gloster, Miss., Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
An employee walks toward a pile of lumber to be used during a tour of a Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South to feed the European Union’s push this past decade for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels like coal. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
An employee walks toward a pile of lumber to be used during a tour of a Drax facility in Gloster, Miss., Monday, May 20, 2024. Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South to feed the European Union’s push this past decade for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels like coal. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
GLOSTER, Miss. (AP) — This southern Mississippi town’s expansive wood pellet plant was so close to Shelia Mae Dobbins’ home that she sometimes heard company loudspeakers. She says industrial residues coated her truck and she no longer enjoys spending time in the air outdoors.
Dobbins feels her life — and health — were better before 2016, when United Kingdom energy giant Drax opened a facility able to compress 450,000 tons of wood chips annually in the majority Black town of Gloster, Mississippi. To her, it’s no coincidence federal regulators find residents are exposed to unwanted air particles and they experience asthma more than most of the country.
Her asthma and diabetes were once under control, but since a 2017 diagnosis of heart and lung disease, Dobbins has frequently lived at the end of a breathing tube connected to an oxygen cannister.
Pellet Machine “Something is going on. And it’s all around the plant,” said the 59-year-old widow who raised two children here. “Nobody asked us could they bring that plant there.”