Internal court documents reveal that senior executives at Drax privately questioned the company’s sustainability claims while publicly denying it was sourcing wood from old-growth forests in Canada. Britain’s largest power plant, which produces around 10% of the country’s electricity, assured ministers and civil servants that its biomass operations were sustainable. These statements came in response to a BBC Panorama documentary in October 2022 alleging that Drax had burned wood from environmentally important forests for fuel. The documents, submitted to an employment tribunal involving former Drax public affairs chief Rowaa Ahmar, show that some executives doubted whether the company had sufficient evidence to support its sustainability claims. Ahmar alleges she was dismissed after warning CEO Will Gardiner that the company was misleading the public, regulators, and government about the source of its biomass pellets. Drax receives over £7bn in subsidies funded through household energy bills. The support is conditional on using biomass made from waste or low-value wood from sustainable forests. Despite this, the company has faced ongoing skepticism over the validity of its supply chain, which imports millions of tonnes of wood pellets annually from Canada. Court filings indicate that the company’s compliance head acknowledged the potential use of old-growth wood at its North Yorkshire plant since at least 2019. Concerns were raised that Drax might have misreported burn data under government subsidy schemes due to insufficient tracking of wood origins. Ahmar’s witness statement describes a chaotic response to the BBC documentary. She claims internal emails revealed that the company could not fully verify the origin of all pellets. Other executives, including chief commercial officer Paul Sheffield, confirmed awareness of these concerns, which were later discussed by the company’s executive committee. CEO Gardiner, in his statement, said that the UK response team was not closely connected with operations in Canada, which complicated data collection. He insisted that the company undertook a full review of the allegations after the documentary aired and denied resisting such a review. Jonathan Oates, director of external affairs, emphasized that the company’s focus was on delivering accurate public statements. Clare Harbord, former corporate affairs director, described the process as “extraordinary, meticulous and robust,” with multiple levels of approval for external communications. Drax commissioned KPMG to review its data and public statements almost a month after the broadcast. The company has not made this report public. Ahmar left Drax in January 2024 and later settled her employment tribunal claim with the company, with Drax stating the agreement did not involve admission of liability. A spokesperson for Drax stressed that all allegations were thoroughly investigated, including independent and third-party reviews. They noted that Ofgem’s separate investigation concluded the company met sustainability thresholds and found no evidence of deliberate misreporting, though £25m in compensation was paid for inadequate data governance between April 2021 and March 2022. A separate investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority continues, focusing on historical statements made by Drax about the sourcing of biomass pellets. Drax, formerly western Europe’s largest coal-fired power station, began transitioning to compressed wood biomass pellets in 2012 and completed the shift in 2023. Despite the controversy, it remains a key player in the UK’s renewable energy mix.