Over 160 groups from 25 states and the District of Columbia today sent a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom urging him to direct the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to reconsider proposed rulemaking regarding the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).
The rulemaking “doubles down on polluting factory farm biogas as the most lavishly incentivized transportation fuel under the state’s LCFS,” Food and Watch Watch reported.
The letter comes on the heels of a newly published analysis from Food & Water Watch revealing that mega-dairy digesters selling into the LCFS system are releasing huge amounts of methane into the atmosphere – even after the digesters were installed.
“We write to express our collective concerns regarding the Air Resources Board’s (CARB) proposed rulemaking that doubles down on polluting factory farm biogas as the most lavishly incentivized transportation fuel under the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS),” the letter states. “Factory farm biogas is not clean energy, and CARB staff’s embrace of this false solution for the next two decades throws Californians already subjected to some of the worst environmental pollution in the nation under the bus. The proposed amendments to the LCFS fly in the face of years of advocacy by environmental justice and climate advocates and blatantly ignore California’s commitment to a just climate transition.”
“We call for immediate and meaningful action to fix the environmental injustices and abuses that have become inherent in the program and that the proposed amendments lock in place for over 20 more years,” the letter argues.
The letter demands the following reforms to the LCFS aimed at stopping incentives for factory farms and factory farm gas:
1. Eliminate "avoided methane crediting" in 2024.
2. Fix the inaccurate Life Cycle Assessment that ignores upstream and downstream GHG emissions associated with factory farm gas production.
3. Eliminate the 10-year "grace period" for factory farm gas producers.
4. Eliminate credit generation from factory farm gas projects that would have happened anyway due to other programs or investments.
“California’s signature climate program is infected with perverse incentives that encourage factory farms to deliberately pollute the climate and local communities,” said Chirag Bhakta, Food & Water Watch California Director. “The California Air Resources Board (CARB) staff’s proposed amendments double down on these failures and use shoddy, cherry picked analyses to reject a proposal forwarded by CARB’s Environmental Justice Advisory Committee that would end these incentives.”
“CARB staff’s decision to reject this environment justice-focused scenario is offensive to impacted Californians and anyone concerned about factory farm pollution and a livable climate,” Bhakta argued. “If Governor Newsom wants to lead on climate, he can’t ignore the devastating impact of big agribusiness. He and the CARB board should reject these incentives for dirty factory farm gas and protect our climate and communities impacted by dirty factory farms.”
In addition to the groups signing on the letter, more than 2,000 individuals from California and across the country sent comments into CARB calling for similar reform of the LCFS program.
“California’s transportation fuel policy is knee deep in cow poop, and it’s not a good look,” quipped Jeremy Martin, Senior Scientist and Director of Fuels Policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists USA in an article on the organization’s website: blog.ucsusa.org/…
“The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is considering amendments to its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) regulation, but indicated they have no plans to address the problems caused by counter-productive subsidies for manure biomethane. CARB’s use of the LCFS as a cash cow to fund manure digesters is bad transportation fuel policy and bad agricultural policy. Accounting gimmicks disguise a poorly run offset scheme as a magic carbon negative climate solution. CARB needs to phase out credits for ‘avoided methane pollution’ refocus the LCFS on transportation and get to work developing a more suitable regulation for pollution from dairies,” Martin wrote.
Meanwhile, the California Air Resources Board announced it has cancelled a public hearing originally scheduled for March 21, 2024, at 9:00 a.m. to consider proposed amendments to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard Regulation under Division 3, Chapter 1, Subchapter 10, Article 4, Subarticle 7 (Low Carbon Fuel Standard) under Title 17, California Code of Regulations.
“Please be advised that CARB will not hear this item at the March 21, 2024, hearing. The hearing on this item has thus been postponed to a future date and time,” CARB wrote in a notice. “A subsequent notice will follow in the future with more information, including the date, time, and location of the rescheduled hearing. The public comment period for this regulatory action, which began on January 5, 2024, and which closes on February 20, 2024, will not be extended.”