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The Pellet Fuels Institute March 19, 2013 (Arlington, VA)

The Pellet Fuels Institute Announces that New England Wood Pellet, LLC is the
First Mill to Qualify in its Standards Program

The Pellet Fuels Institute announced last week that New England Wood Pellet, LLC (Jaffrey NH, Deposit NY, Schuyler NY) has officially qualified under the Pellet Fuels Institute (PFI) pellet fuel standards program. New England Wood Pellet, LLC (NEWP) is the first pellet manufacturer that can display the PFI Quality Mark on their bags, indicating that they are producing pellets that are compliant with the fuel grade listed on their bags.

The PFI Standards Program is a third party certification program providing standard specifications for residential and commercial grade fuel. The Pellet Fuels Institute, in its role as the leading authority on the North American pellet industry, established the standards program as a mechanism to ensure consumers and retailers that the fuel consistency and quality matches manufacturer claims found on bags of fuel and other informational materials.

"NEWP's qualification to the PFI Standards Program is a significant milestone for the industry and PFI," said PFI Executive Director, Jennifer Hedrick. "Our members and collaborators have put thousands of hours into the development of this program and it's rewarding to enroll the first company. There are other companies working to qualify for the program, and we are expecting similar announcements in the months to come."

According to Luann Lafreniere, Quality Manager for New England Wood Pellet, LLC, "New England Wood Pellet, LLC has always shown a strong commitment to the production of quality wood pellets. With three operating plants, we concern ourselves with pellet quality and consistency. To do that we focus on process and in-house testing. We are pleased that the PFI Standards Program now encompasses process control as well as third-party quality testing. With our processes in place we felt we were ready to qualify under the program and at the same time encourage other manufacturers to follow suit."

This qualification is the culmination of work that NEWP has done in conjunction with PFI, the American Lumber Standard Committee (ALSC) and Timber Products Inspection, Inc. (Conyers GA) over the last year. In order to maintain compliancy within the program, New England Wood Pellet has entered into an agreement with Timber Products Inspection, Inc. (TP) for auditing and third party laboratory testing. TP is one of 12 auditing agencies accredited by ALSC for auditing services within the PFI Standards Program, and will play a key role in ensuring that the pellets produced by NEWP are a consistent quality. According to Chris Wiberg, Manager of Biomass Services at TP, "NEWP has worked hard to develop their program, and I am not surprised that they have stepped forward as the first pellet manufacturer to obtain qualification in this program".

For further details on the PFI Standards Program, including a list of qualified auditing agencies and testing labs, producers and consumers should visit www.pelletheat.org/pfi-standards or www.alsc.org.

For more information, please contact:

Jennifer Hedrick, Executive Director, Pellet Fuels Institute, 703-522-6778
Luann Lafreniere, Quality Manager, New England Wood Pellet, LLC, 877-981-9663
Tammy Hippchen, Business Development, Timber Products Inspection, Inc., 218-461-2579