Mississippi
Biomass Company Request to Scale Up in Gloster Denied
JACKSON, Miss.—A Mississippi permit board rejected global biomass manufacturer Drax’s bid to scale up production in a southwest Mississippi town, delivering a victory to residents who blame the company for worsening air quality in the area.
After nearly four hours of deliberations, Mississippi’s Environmental Quality Permit Board in Jackson denied Drax’s request to reclassify its Gloster, Miss., plant as a “major” source of hazardous air pollutants, or HAPs. The change would have raised the threshold for harmful emissions authorized at the facility, which has previously been cited for multiple air pollution violations.
Five board members voted against the new permit and one member abstained.
“Today, we’re denying these requests,” Permit Board Chairman Doug Mann said at the April 8 hearing. “We encourage (Drax) to continue to work with (Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality) staff to monitor those chemicals … and keep them out of the environment.”
Boasting a formidable presence in the southeastern United States, United Kingdom-based Drax produces wood pellets from local forests used to generate electricity—a process that releases dust particles and various hazardous substances like acrolein and methanol. The company has touted its product as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, though growing evidence suggests the production and burning of wood pellets yields more climate-warming emissions on a cumulative basis.
Since 2016, when Drax opened its facility on the fringes of downtown Gloster, residents have reported a range of respiratory illnesses and other health problems that they insist stem from the plant’s operations. Local organizers and advocates have held numerous events over the years to highlight conditions in the town, with some even traveling to the UK to meet with top Drax executives and demand reforms to their overseas business practices.
Residents used last week’s permit board meeting as another opportunity to underscore their predicament, claiming emissions from the Drax facility have made their town unsafe.
“I can’t walk from my bathroom to my bedroom because I can’t breathe,” Carmella Causey, a Gloster resident with a portable oxygen concentrator, said in a statement to the permit board. “It does not make sense that we are being killed in our community in broad daylight by an object that we can’t see.”
Local advocates, meanwhile, accused Drax of flouting environmental standards and exposing vulnerable Mississippians to dangerous pollutants for the sake of its bottom line.
“This industry has shown … that they don’t care about the law,” Katherine Egland, co-founder of the local environmental justice group EEECHO, said during the meeting. “They’re nothing but a bunch of well-subsidized corporate assassins who readily put profit over people.”
Drax representatives at the meeting said they simply want to bring production in line with what their current operating permit allows. This would require being reclassified as a major HAP source in Mississippi, one executive explained.
“With the increased (emissions) limits, we could increase production, but not above whatever the permit limits,” Brad Mayhew, vice president of Drax’s southern operations, told the permit board on April 8.
The Mississippi Free Press reached out to Drax for comment after the meeting, but did not hear back by press time.
Since 2016, Mississippi regulatory agencies have fined Drax three times for emissions-related violations, including a $2.5 million fine in 2020 that represents one of the largest Clean Air Act penalties in state history. A 2024 investigation from the Land and Climate Review also found that its U.S. facilities have broken environmental regulations more than 11,000 times since 2014.
Despite this track record and the outcome of last week’s hearing, the permit board indicated that it might revisit Drax’s request down the road if the plant can keep emissions in check.
“This is a rapidly developing industry,” Mann said following the vote. “Hopefully, in the near future, there will be ways to mitigate all of these HAPs and other bad things that the process generates.”
Speaking with the Mississippi Free Press on April 10, Egland said advocates will use the board’s decision to continue raising awareness about Drax and pressure lawmakers to take a stand against the company. She bristled at the idea that Drax should be granted more leeway with emissions just because it belongs to an “emerging industry.”
“We don’t think that our Mississippi residents should be pawns in an experimental (process),” Egland concluded. “We should not be suffering because they are on a learning curve.”
Related
For a brief moment it looked like the ghosts of Mississippi State’s past had come back to haunt the Bulldogs.
Missouri, who hadn’t won an SEC game until last weekend, trailed Mississippi State 12-0 headed into the bottom of the sixth inning. Then, like several other Mississippi State opponents have done this season, the Tigers started a comeback.
The Tigers scored seven unanswered runs, avoiding a run-rule defeat and putting them within striking distance (12-7) of a win. That must’ve woken the Bulldogs back up because what happened next wasn’t pretty.
Mississippi State scored three runs in the eighth inning to rebuild its lead and then went on to score 10 more runs in the ninth inning (in such a fashion to make one wonder, can we just offer mercy and be done?) and finish with a season-high 25 runs scored.
The Bulldogs set the single-game school record by slugging eight home runs in a 25-7 nine-inning victory over the Tigers at Taylor Stadium.
Reed Stallman, Ace Reese and Hunter Hines all hit two home runs with Hines’ second blast tying him with Rafael Palmeiro (1982-85) for the most career homers in MSU history at 67. Noah Sullivan and Joe Powell also went deep for the Bulldogs in their season-high 23-hit attack.
Sullivan finished the night 3-for-5 with homer and two RBIs while Reese, Hines and Bryce Chance were 3-for-6. Reese and Hines both added doubles to their two-homer games with Reese driving in four and Hines three. Chance provided three singles and had two RBIs. Stallman went 2-for-3 with two homers and three RBIs, Gatlin Sanders went 2-for-4 wtih two singles and an RBI while Sawyer Reeves was 2-for-5 with two singles and drove in one.
Steven Spalitta added a pinch hit two-run triple and Gehrig Frei doubled as State improved to 32-20 overall and 13-15 in conference play.
Stone Simmons picked up the win in 1 1/3 innings of relief to up his record to 4-2 on the year. Nate Williams earned his first save as a Bulldog after working the final three frames.
State continues the series with Missouri on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. with both games streamed on SEC Network+.
Mississippi
Record number of Mississippi third-graders pass reading assessment; see how local districts performed – Mississippi's Best Community Newspaper
Record number of Mississippi third-graders pass reading assessment; see how local districts performed
Published 12:48 pm Thursday, May 15, 2025
NATCHEZ – A record high number of Mississippi third-graders passed the state reading assessment on the first attempt this spring, prompting praise from statewide education leaders.
“These results are outstanding. The MDE applauds all educators and families across the state that make literacy a priority,” said Dr. Lance Evans, state superintendent of education. “With a continued emphasis on the science of reading as well as implementation of high-quality instructional materials, we believe Mississippi students will continue to make progress.”
A total of 32,839 third graders took the assessment. In 2023-24, 75.7% of third graders passed the initial administration of the reading assessment. After the final retests in 2023-24, 84% of third graders passed the test.
In accordance with the Literacy-Based Promotion Act (LBPA), third graders who do not pass the initial administration of the reading test are given up to two attempts to retest. Students who did not pass the initial reading assessment retested in early May. The second retest window is June 16 – 27.
Area district performance included:
Natchez-Adams County School District
McLaurin Elementary School, 74.2% pass rate
Amite County School District
Amite County Elementary, 61.5% pass rate
Claiborne County School District
A.W. Watson Elementary, 64.4% pass rate
Franklin County School District
Franklin County Lower Elementary, 82.2% pass rate
Jefferson County School District
Jefferson County Elementary, 84%
Wilkinson County School District
Wilkinson County Elementary, 45% pass rate
The LBPA became law in 2013 to improve reading skills of kindergarten through third-grade students in public schools so every student completing the third grade is able to read at or above grade level. The LBPA requires Mississippi third graders to pass a reading assessment to qualify for promotion to fourth grade. Some students may qualify for good cause exemptions to be promoted to fourth grade.
An amendment to the law in 2016 raised reading-level expectations starting in the 2018-19 school year, requiring third graders to score at level three or higher on the reading portion of the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP) English Language Arts (ELA) assessment.
Click here to see the district- and school-level initial pass rate report for 2024-25.
Final district-level pass rates will be published this fall in the Literacy-Based Promotion Act Annual Report of Performance and Student Retention for the 2024-25 school year.
Watch East Central celebrate its MHSAA 5A title win over Lafayette
Watch as East Central softball celebrate its MHSAA 5A championship after a 10-6 win over Lafayette on May 14. Its first title since 2009.
HATTIESBURG — The Mississippi high school softball championships are underway at the Southern Miss Softball Complex for the MHSAA playoffs.
Games began May 13 and run through May 17.
Here is a recap of some of the games.
Mississippi high school softball championship roundup 2025
East Central claims MHSAA 5A title after sweeping Lafayette
East Central’s championship drought finally ended.
After its forth state final appearance in the last five years, East Central (30-7) swept Lafayette (25-9) in the MHSAA Class 5A state final on May 14 with a 10-6 victory.
East Central defeated Lafayette 10-3 in Game 1 on May 13.
The Lady Hornets won their first title since 2009 and fifth overall.
“I mean, it’s unbelievable. I don’t know even if it’s kicked in,” East Central coach Gerald Edmonson said. “We’ve been here four out of the past five years. … We’ve been really close for the past five years, and to finally get over that hump. It’s just, it’s unbelievable.”
Junior Abigail Danis won series MVP after going 4-for-9 with four RBIs, pitching 10 innings with five strikeouts, and allowing four earned runs through two games.
Danis entered the fifth inning of Game 2 and allowed three hits and one run while breaking the game open in the fourth inning at the plate with a three-run home run to left field for a 9-5 lead.
“It couldn’t have happened to a better individual,” Edmonson said of Danis. “I know a lot of people say that, and that’s kind of cliche, but it’s really the truth. … She has been phenomenal all year.”
Edmonson credited the Lady Hornets for battling against MHSAA 5A Miss Softball Mabry Eason in both games.
“When you’re able to get to the 5A player of the year, not once, but twice, that speaks volumes about our approach and how locked in our girls were yesterday and today,” he said.
Michael Chavez covers high school sports for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at mchavez@gannett.com or reach out to him on X, formerly Twitter @MikeSChavez.
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