Environmental groups are opening up new forms of opposition to clean fuels credits that reward farm biogas in two states. If successful, they could reduce the strong incentive farm owners receive to convert biogas from manure into renewable natural gas.
In California, a coalition of environmental groups led by Food & Water Watch sued the California Air Resources Board on July 25. They allege that the Low Carbon Fuel Standard amendments that went into effect on July 1 unlawfully expand support for farm biogas and lock in negative impacts to communities near factory farms. The groups specifically hope to reverse avoided methane crediting, a policy that gives factory farm biogas particularly strong carbon intensity scores that boosts the price they charge for the credits they generate.
“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,” Tyler Lobdell, staff attorney at Food & Water Watch, said in a statement. “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.”
Food & Water Watch is joined by Central Valley Defenders of Clean Air and Water, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and Center for Food Safety in its lawsuit. The California Air Resources Board did not respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.
Clean fuel standards have become subject to increasing political pressure in recent months as state and federal lawmakers — encouraged by the Trump administration — have prioritized gas prices for consumers over aggressive climate action.
In a related update, the LCFS appears to have survived an attempt to cap credit prices at January 2025 levels. That proposed change was included as part of SB 237, a bill introduced in the California legislature to make gasoline more affordable. The language was removed from the bill, which is still making its way through the legislature, in July.
Food & Water Watch is also pressuring New Mexico regulators to not include avoided methane crediting in the state’s own that state’s clean fuels policy. New Mexico’s Clean Transportation Fuel Standards are still being shaped by the state’s Environmental Improvement Board. The CTFS program was created through a bill signed into law by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in March 2024.
New Mexico’s agency staff have released multiple draft proposals for the fuel standards, with the more recent proposal making carbon intensity scores for factory farm biogas less lucrative, Lobdell said on a recent webinar.
The environmental group is urging New Mexico residents to keep up pressure on the Environmental Improvement Board ahead of its late September meeting where it will next debate the fuel standards. The board could finalize the standards at that time.
“We cannot afford to enrich and entrench factory farms,” Emily Tucker, New Mexico organizer with Food & Water Watch, said on the webinar. “We must not import this policy from California into New Mexico, especially when that policy has led to numerous legal challenges and is opposed by environmental justice advocates across California.”
Despite activist pushback, new biogas projects and deals progressed in July.
This is the latest installment in Waste Dive’s Biogas Monthly series.
