The California Air Resources Board on May 30 declined a request to immediately initiate rulemaking proceedings that would require all dairies within the state to adopt some form of methane mitigation and adopt enteric emissions reduction measures.
Climate Action California in March filed a petition with CARB urging the agency to take action to reduce the state’s methane emissions by regulating methane produced by certain types of livestock operations. The petition specifically asked CARB to require all dairies adopt methane mitigation measures; adopt a system of measuring emissions on all farms; establish funding resources to help dairies exceed the minimum standard, using digester and other measures; over the next 20 years, reduce or eliminate wet or lagoon style management and replace it with “dry” management; regulate aspects of dairy greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that have special impacts, including nitrous oxide and fugitive emissions from digesters; provide technical assistance to dairies in ways of managing manure and the ammonia, N20, hydrogen sulfide and methane it produces; and regulate enteric emissions for all livestock if initial short-term pilot incentive programs to not produce a 20% reduction in enteric emissions by 2030 and 40% by 2040.
The Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas is among the groups that filed public comments on the petition, calling it “doubtlessly well meaning,” but stressing that the petition errs in several critical ways and misrepresents the success of CARB’s existing strategy to reduce methane from dairies.
Photo: Arla Foods
