Paul Sousa, Director of Environmental and Regulatory Affairs

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is holding a workshop via webinar entitled, “Methane, Dairies and Livestock, and Renewable Natural Gas in California” on Tuesday March 29th. This is not a hearing of the CARB Board, and no decision is being made at the workshop however topics important to dairy are being discussed. I will be providing a brief presentation on the future of dairy in California at the workshop.

The following link provides the meeting notice, which has a link to join the meeting, as well as the meeting agenda: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our–work/programs/slcp/meetings

Environmental Justice (EJ) advocates have been pushing the State to not allow dairies and livestock to earn revenue for the greenhouse gas emissions reductions we achieve to help the state meet its targets. These incentives, like the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), make digesters possible and therefore the achievements we have made with them. Without those incentives we would be nowhere near meeting our legislated target of reducing manure methane emissions by 40%. However, with the incentives reaching that target is achievable. The EJ advocates had petitioned CARB deny dairy digesters LCFS credits. CARB recently denied their petition but agreed to continue discussions on the topic. This workshop is a direct result of that petition and the ongoing discussions. This is important for dairies, especially those that have a digester that is benefiting from ongoing incentives such as the LCFS. We know the EJ advocates will be providing comments at this meeting and it is important for us to balance those comments with factual information about California’s dairy families and our operations. I was recently on WUD’s podcast, Seen and Herd, talking about this topic if you would like more information on it, please listen to the latest episode. Also, if producers would like to provide public comment at the meeting, please contact me and I can assist you.