A Polluter's Paradise: Newsom administration doubles down on dirty biogas in LCFS vote

Sacramento — During a long meeting that extended into the evening on November 8, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved a series of controversial amendments to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), one of the state’s oldest climate laws.

“The proposal approved today strikes a balance between reducing the environmental and health impacts of transportation fuel used in California and ensuring that low-carbon options are available as the state continues to work toward a zero-emissions future,” said CARB Chair Liane Randolph. “Today’s approval increases consumer options beyond petroleum, provides a roadmap for cleaner air, and leverages private sector investment and federal incentives to spur innovation to address climate change and pollution.” 

CARB said this system has generated $4 billion in annual private sector investment toward a “cleaner transportation sector,” claiming that these investments “provide multiple economic benefits to Californian consumers, including:

- Increasing consumer choices, which drives transportation fuel price competition
- Growing new industries and attracting investments that support jobs and strengthen communities
- Reducing dependence on petroleum and the oil industry, thereby protecting consumers from its associated supply and cost volatility
- Making electric vehicles more affordable
- Expanding access to electric vehicle charging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure
- Reducing the health impacts and health care costs associated with air pollution from fossil fuels”

Food and Water Watch disagreed with CARB’s assessment of the amendments to the LCFS, noting that among other things, it “cements polluting factory farm biogas as the climate program’s most lavishly incentivized transportation fuel for decades to come.” 

“With today’s vote, Governor Newsom’s flagship climate program has devolved into a polluter’s paradise,” Food & Water Watch Staff Attorney Tyler Lobdell stated. “Instead of leading the way with bold climate action, CARB now finds itself in violation of state law as it pushes ahead with an LCFS that is counterproductive and unjust. For months, Newsom’s CARB has ignored repeated testimony from experts and frontline environmental justice communities demanding the agency stop rewarding factory farm pollution. Going forward, all options are on the table as we seek to safeguard our climate and communities.”   

Food & Water Watch said it has for years sounded the alarm on the impacts of California’s subsidized factory farm gas buildout nationwide. In February, 160+ groups demanded Governor Newsom seize upon an open LCFS rulemaking to stop funneling the program’s climate funds toward dirty factory farm gas.  

In a similar vein, Adrian Martinez, deputy managing attorney at Earthjustice, said the LCFS is a “failed policy, and the communities most impacted by air pollution in California will be the ones breathing the price for it.”

”Most of the program’s billions will go to combustion fuels, so there is no question that this approach is dragging California backwards,” Martinez explained. “In light of an imminent Trump administration threat to California’s zero-emissions goals, it’s more important than ever that California regulators safeguard our path to clean air and an electric future. CARB’s decision today on the LCFS is the biggest miss we’ve seen in a long time.” 

The American Biogas Council had a mixed reaction to the hotly-contested amendments. 

“Today’s approval of LCFS program amendments by the California Air Resources Board provides the clear signal to the biogas development market that is needed to facilitate and encourage continued investments in new biogas projects,” said Patrick Serfass, Executive Director of the American Biogas Council, in a statement. “Biogas systems capture potent methane emissions, supply a carbon-negative fuel, and provide real emissions reductions and real results to decarbonize California’s transportation sector.”

“Further, CARB’s work to strengthen the carbon intensity (CI) targets of the LCFS with the approval of a CI reduction target and the inclusion of the Auto Acceleration Mechanism is a very positive change that will further drive down GHG emissions in the transportation sector, reducing reliance on petroleum fuels, and transitioning to electric vehicles where feasible,” he continued.

However, Sefass said his group is “disappointed” with the Board’s decision to reduce the number of avoided methane crediting periods for biomethane projects.

“This change ignores some of the very real methane reductions biogas systems create, and will hamper California’s ability to fight climate change,” Seafass argued.

Many speakers at the meeting criticized the board’s decision for leading to increased gas prices in California.

“We do not need lower CARB emissions — good grief!” said California resident Melanie Arace in a public comment to the board. “If this is all about the air quality, one sliver of our country isn’t going to clean the air of the entire planet. Quit taxing us to death!”

The LCFS was started under the Arnold Schwarzenegger administration. It was intended to lower the state's greenhouse gas emissions as the state continues its transition to zero emissions by 2045. 

Background from Food & Water Watch:

“California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) is the nation’s largest and most lucrative pollution trading scheme for factory farm biogas. Designed to slash climate warming emissions from California’s transportation sector, the program’s perverse incentives are instead spurring the buildout of polluting factory farms in California and across the country. A Food & Water Watch analysis found that 15 California mega-dairies receiving lucrative green energy credits through the LCFS program emit levels of methane visible by satellite and imaging aircraft.

“Due to CARB’s shoddy accounting that ignores both the up- and downstream emissions of factory farm gas production, the LCFS awards factory farm gas a falsely negative carbon intensity, allowing factory farms to earn credits by “capturing” the gas and selling those credits to other major polluters. This incentivizes the buildout of gas infrastructure and the factory farming model, both huge sources of climate, air and water pollution disproportionately impacting low-income communities and communities of color. Nowhere is this more obvious than California’s Central Valley, where residents' concerns with mega dairy air and water pollution have been repeatedly ignored by CARB.

“The vote also has nationwide implications. Oregon, New Mexico and Washington have all adopted LCFS programs modeled on California’s; nearly a dozen other states are considering similar programs. Other states in the early stages of adopting clean transportation fuel standards have the opportunity to close the biogas loophole, before it incentivizes the buildout of biogas infrastructure, bigger herd sizes, and more pollution.”