CA Regulators Poised to Approve Most Egregious Biogas Scheme Yet

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Earlier this week, environmental justice, climate and animal welfare groups submitted a comment calling on the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to reject the latest, and most egregious, factory farm biogas scheme being pushed through the state's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).

The proposed biogas project would allow Bar 20 dairy, one of the San Joaquin Valley's largest mega-dairies, to gain unprecedented incentives under California's LCFS by selling factory farm biogas to a nearby facility that will burn that biogas to produce hydrogen. Factory farm biogas is a noxious mixture of climate intensive methane gas and other air pollutants that large factory farms generate when they irresponsibly manage their waste.

While certainly not the first factory farm to be granted lucrative incentives from their pollution under the LCFS, this instance is particularly alarming because the hydrogen produced is poised to be assigned an unheard of carbon intensity (CI) value of -1887.35 CI (for comparison, most biogas falls around -250 CI while solar panels and wind energy are typically limited to a CI of zero or higher). A lower CI means more money from credit trading. This is the lowest CI in the history of the LCFS.

In other words, no matter how much pollution they spew into nearby communities, these facilities will be set to gain unprecedented amounts of money from that pollution.

"The application from Bar 20 takes the LCFS's "pay to pollute" model to a higher level than we ever thought possible," said Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability Co-Executive Director Phoebe Seaton. "And, once again, it's California consumers who are paying with their hard-earned dollars and San Joaquin Valley residents who are paying with their health."

"The California Air Resources Board has an obligation to regulate the factory farming industry's climate pollution-not encourage it with massive subsidies," said Animal Legal Defense Fund Senior Staff Attorney Christine Ball-Blakely. "Bar 20 is a mega dairy factory farm choosing to use a liquid manure management system that creates large quantities of methane, which is a potent climate pollutant. Such intentionally created methane can never become renewable fuel. Paying factory farms like Bar 20 to create as much methane as possible is not just bad math-it's perverse policy."

"What we're seeing here is the expected result of what the LCFS has become after it was amended to double down on factory farm biogas production at the largest and most polluting dairies," said Food & Water Watch Staff Attorney Tyler Lobdell. "Despite the warnings of environmental advocates and community members, CARB has allowed this program to morph into an increasingly perverse giveaway to factory farms that undermines real climate progress. This project shows that in real time as one of the state's largest dairies is poised to greenwash dirty hydrogen production so that it appears better than zero-emission hydrogen production, on paper. Unfortunately, it's Californians that will pay for this foolishness at the pump and in their healthcare costs."

The comment was submitted by Defensores del Valle Central para el Aire y Agua Límpio ("Defensores"), Animal Legal Defense Fund, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, and Food & Water Watch.

This comment was also submitted days after another cohort of groups provided CARB with a robust list of suggestions on how to regulate California's dairy industry to center the concerns of community members and prioritize actual reducing methane emissions over programs like the LCFS that pay polluters to keep polluting. Defensores del Valle Central para el Aire y Agua Límpio ("Defensores"), Animal Legal Defense Fund, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, and Food & Water Watch also submitted a comment.