Today more than 160 groups from 25 states and the District of Columbia sent a letter to Governor Newsom calling on him to direct the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to reconsider 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). This comes in the wake of a newly published analysis from Food & Water Watch showing that mega-dairy digesters selling into the LCFS system are releasing huge amounts of methane into the atmosphere – even after the digesters were installed.

The LCFS program is the leading driver of factory farm biogas buildout nationwide, rewarding and entrenching some of the worst factory farming practices by showering these dirty operations with lavish subsidies that pay them to pollute. Instead of moving California toward a clean transportation sector, the LCFS has been taken over by false solutions and climate profiteering. 

Said Chirag Bhakta, Food & Water Watch California Director:

“California’s signature climate program is infected with perverse incentives that encourage factory farms to deliberately pollute the climate and local communities. 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. 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.