Tax Credit For Biogas Boosts U.S. Factory Farms

When food and animal waste are deprived of oxygen, which occurs in landfills and manure lagoons, a natural process known as anaerobic digestion occurs. Bacteria consume the waste products and release methane, a natural gas.

Photo Insert: Biogas is an energy source that captures methane emissions from large-scale farms.

The process occurs on farms inside air-tight containers known as digesters, which are common in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO), John McCracken reported for Grist magazine.

These digesters capture methane that would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere, making biogas one avenue to reduce methane emissions. The burning of methane does release carbon into the atmosphere, but the use of biogas allows the nation to cut the equivalent of carbon dioxide emissions of 1.3 million cars in a year.

The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law this past August, includes a sweeping $369 billion investment in various clean energy technologies and credits for consumers to purchase greener technologies.

One of those industries is biogas, an energy source that captures methane emissions from large-scale farms.

Dr. Sacoby Wilson, a leading expert on environmental justice for rural and agricultural communities, said biogas investments may help decrease methane emissions, but neighboring residents are still exposed to a variety of compounding health hazards.

“They’re not getting the co-benefits that supposedly come from capturing methane, burning methane, or digesting waste,” Wilson told Grist.

Wilson said that biogas is not a clean energy source. While he appreciates the Biden administration’s recent advancements and commitments to environmental justice, the massive funding push for biogas inside the IRA is “one step forward and two steps back.”

He said there should be more significant investments in solutions to the source problems of methane emissions, such as massive agricultural operations that have grown across the country, rather than propping up an industry that relies on destructive practices.

“Why not invest in sustainable, regenerative agriculture?” Wilson said, “which will actually be more beneficial to local communities, to the local economy.”

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