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

• Wood pellet exports from the southern United States have surged substantially in the last decade. • We estimated the minimal impacts of the wood pellet industry on the woody feedstock market. • The wood pellet industry has no impacts on harvested quantities of roundwood pulpwood. 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Resources, Conservation & Recycling is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)