Biden spending bill ignites debate over dairy methane pollution

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As U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to revive its ambitious social spending and climate plan in Congress, environmental groups and the farm industry are at odds over proposed subsidies aimed at offsetting agriculture’s substantial contribution to global warming.

Tax credits and grants proposed in the administration’s sweeping “Build Back Better” bill would bolster the small but fast-growing market for manure-based methane gas by supporting construction of machines that trap the gas from open manure pits on dairy farms and other livestock operations. Farmers could then sell the trapped methane for use in generating electricity or vehicle fuel in the form of compressed natural gas.

Methane, a potent greenhouse gas that has a higher heat-trapping potential than carbon dioxide , is the second-biggest cause of climate change behind CO2. Livestock methane pollution accounts for more than a third of U.S methane emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency . Digesters are mainly found at dairies because milking cows produce more manure than beef cattle.

In 2009, the Obama administration and an industry group, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, pledged to reduce the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020 over levels in 2007, in part by expanding federal support for new digesters. Digesters are pricey, typically costing between $4 million and $7 million each, and often require dedicated staff to run them. Digesters also don’t capture the 27% of U.S. methane emissions that come from livestock enteric fermentation, or cow burps, for which there is no commercial-scale solution.

The state is currently on track to meet only half its emissions-reduction goal, after spending nearly $200 million on digesters since 2015.

 

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