Today, California’s controversial new Low Carbon Fuel Standard rules have officially gone into effect. 

Groups who have filed a lawsuit against the California Air Resources Board demanding that CARB addresses the significant environmental impacts of the LCFS released the following statements: 

“As long as the Low Carbon Fuel Standard continues to prioritize production of factory farm gas, we will continue our fight to hold CARB accountable,” said Defensores del Valle Central para el Aire y Agua Limpio representative David Rodriguez. “For years, we’ve endured pollution from a dairy that keeps expanding, and we’re not alone. CARB must acknowledge the environmental and public health harms caused by the program and stop putting our rights to clean air and water at risk.”

“The new rules double down on perverse incentives for so-called biogas produced from factory farm waste,” said Tyler Lobdell, Staff Attorney with Food & Water Watch. “The LCFS will continue rewarding factory farms to get bigger and pollute more, which is bad for the climate and especially bad for the communities living near these dangerous facilities. We will continue to fight factory farms for the health of our communities as well as our climate, air and water.” 

“By adopting the LCFS amendments, CARB has chosen to incentivize the expansion of factory farms and irresponsible manure management across California’s Central Valley,” said Christian Suarez, Litigation Fellow with the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “Rather than take direct and meaningful measures to reduce methane emissions from industrial dairies, CARB has acted to the detriment of a region that is already overburdened by some of the worst air pollution in the country.”

Petitioners are Defensores del Valle Central para el Aire y Agua Limpio, Food & Water Watch, and Animal Legal Defense Fund. Defensores is represented by Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, the Law Office of Brent Newell, and Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP.