Today, environmental justice and environmental groups filed a new lawsuit against Governor Newsom’s California Air Resources Board (CARB) over the state’s controversial amendments to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard. 

The new lawsuit argues that CARB is acting like a rogue agency by ignoring the requirements and safeguards in California law designed to ensure that programs like the LCFS actually help the climate and California communities. Instead, CARB has prioritized dairy industry profits over effective, equitable climate action. By massively incentivizing the production of factory farm biogas, the agency continues to reward the biggest polluters and plans to do so for decades to come.

“Planada, my community in Merced County, is designated as severely disadvantaged. We are a town of 4,000 people surrounded by 8,000 cows less than a mile away at a dairy that keeps expanding. For years, we have endured pollution and putrid odors, and we have raised our concerns with CARB time and again, only to be ignored,” said David Rodriguez, founding member of Central Valley Defenders for Clean Air and Water. “CARB is encouraging the production of, and has failed to regulate, excessive dairy manure pollution at the expense of air, water, and local communities. It’s beyond time for them to be held accountable.”

“This new suit aims to bring CARB back in line with its obligations to honestly and equitably address the climate crisis under California’s climate laws,” said Tyler Lobdell, Staff Attorney at Food & Water Watch. “CARB doubling down on false climate solutions like factory farm biogas is bad for the climate and bad for Californians, and now we’re arguing it’s illegal as well.”

“CARB is actively working against its own mission — instead of protecting Californians, it’s offering incentives to factory farms that will allow them to grow and expand their polluting practices of storing manure that will only exacerbate the climate crisis and harm surrounding communities,” said Christian Suarez, Litigation Fellow at the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “We will continue to challenge CARB to ensure public health and the environment are prioritized over profits.”

“Factory farm biogas is a false climate solution that harms rural communities while entrenching and rewarding the industrial model of agriculture,” said Kristina Sinclair, Staff Attorney at Center for Food Safety. “Instead of supporting more sustainable dairies and livestock operations, CARB is rewarding their competitors for being massive polluters.”

This lawsuit is filed in addition to one filed at the end of last year – in which groups claimed CARB failed to adequately address the health and environmental impacts of the LCFS amendments. Petitioners seek to force CARB to disclose, analyze, and mitigate the significant environmental impact caused by the LCFS amendments as required by the California Environmental Quality Act in that case.

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