Impacts of the European renewable energy policy on forest resource markets in the Southern United States: A case of the wood pellet industry

Abstract

Exports of wood pellet from the southern United States (US) have surged significantly in the last decade to meet renewable energy requirements set by the Renewable Energy Directives in European Union nations. Several export-oriented industrial wood pellet production facilities have been established across the southern US, which utilize a significant amount of woody feedstock including roundwood stumpage. We employ quasi-experimental causal inference approaches to assess the impacts of the growing wood pellet production on pine and hardwood pulpwood feedstock markets in 39 wood basins across 11 southern states in the US. The findings suggest that the booming wood pellet industry has minimal impacts on the pulpwood feedstock markets in the micro-markets that host wood pellet mills. Findings shed light on how the expanding industrial wood pellet production has influenced the forest resource harvests and product prices in the largest wood basket region of the world.