As long-serving members of the California Air Sources Board, we’ve prioritized environmental justice and neighborhood well being, championing efforts to fight local weather change. Nonetheless, we imagine state insurance policies should thoughtfully deal with the implications for communities least in a position to bear the related prices.
This concern applies to CARB’s newly adopted amendments to speed up the Low Carbon Gasoline Normal, or LCFS, which we opposed. The gasoline commonplace program, established in 2011, goals to cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions from transportation by capping the carbon depth of fuels. The present program mandates a 20% discount in gasoline carbon depth by 2030. The proposed amendments push this to a 30% minimize by 2030 and 90% by 2045.
Sooner implementation, nonetheless, dangers growing gasoline costs — a big burden on low-income communities already scuffling with prices. This subject has attracted consideration from the media, legislators and the general public. Past monetary considerations, the LCFS has had one other, less-publicized consequence: a dramatic transformation of California’s dairy business.
Over the previous decade, many dairies have shifted their priorities pushed by LCFS incentives, with troubling public well being penalties.
California’s dairy business has traditionally targeted on milk manufacturing, however in the present day, many dairies are producing renewable pure gasoline by capturing methane from manure. The LCFS propels this development by way of California’s carbon credit score system, which goals to cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions. Beneath this program, entities earn and promote credit for slicing emissions, and dairies revenue by changing methane into renewable pure gasoline. Nonetheless, the system rewards larger-scale manure manufacturing, as extra methane generates extra credit and income. This creates a perverse incentive, prioritizing pollution-heavy practices over sustainable, low-impact options.
Capturing methane, a greenhouse gasoline over 80 occasions stronger than carbon dioxide within the brief time period, is significant for combating local weather change. But, the strategies to realize reductions matter. The new amendments inadvertently incentivize the expansion of mega-dairies now disproportionately concentrated within the Central Valley, the place land is cheaper than different components of the state — a area already grappling with environmental and well being challenges.
As mega-dairies broaden, their impacts on native communities worsen. In response to feedback from the Management Counsel for Justice and Accountability, a local weather, well being and fairness group working within the Central Valley, these services exacerbate air air pollution, groundwater depletion and nitrate contamination, disproportionately affecting low-income Latino communities.
The promise of renewable pure gasoline as a “bridge gasoline” is essentially flawed. As a substitute of transitioning towards sustainable decarbonization, the LCFS now encourages the enlargement of large-scale dairies to maximise methane technology. Dairies are rewarded not for decreasing methane emissions however for capturing what they generate, perpetuating pollution-heavy practices. Extra waste generates means extra revenue.
Whereas capturing methane contributes to California’s greenhouse gasoline discount objectives, the collateral harm is plain. Mega-dairies are among the many largest ammonia emitters, contributing to nice particulate matter air pollution that causes respiratory sicknesses and untimely dying. The Central Valley, already burdened with among the worst air high quality within the nation, can not stand up to further hurt. Furthermore, nitrate runoff from manure continues to infect ingesting water, disproportionately affecting deprived communities reliant on home wells.
Accelerating LCFS mandates will solely hasten the enlargement of mega-dairies.
CARB has already undermined efforts to manage livestock methane emissions. Whereas we efficiently pushed for rules to start by 2028, a last-minute change allowed mega-dairies to proceed to revenue from “averted methane” credit primarily based on flawed assumptions, encouraging herd consolidation and pollution-heavy liquid manure techniques. Sustainable options, corresponding to dry dealing with or pasture-based techniques, which generate far fewer pollution, stay unsupported. For these causes, we have been on the shedding aspect of a 12-2 vote by the board on the LCFS modification.
Methane is an instantaneous local weather menace, and failure to deal with it could be catastrophic. Nonetheless, ignoring the long-term environmental and social prices of factory-farm gasoline improvement prioritizes short-term local weather beneficial properties over public well being and fairness. Our local weather options should not come on the expense of environmental justice.
The LCFS program may very well be improved by capping the scale and variety of dairy operations eligible for methane incentives. With out such limits, we danger entrenching an business whose environmental harms outweigh its local weather advantages.
Moreover, CARB should prioritize sustainable methane discount options, together with practices that scale back air pollution on the supply somewhat than perpetuating dangerous techniques. Setting these limits would create a fairer and more practical framework for addressing emissions whereas defending susceptible communities.
Combating local weather change is not only about dairies. It’s about selecting a path that doesn’t lead to extra hurt to susceptible communities. For the sake of our air, water, and public well being, we should guarantee our options work for everybody, not simply for many who revenue from air pollution.
Dean Florez, a member of the California Air Sources Board, is a former California Senate majority leader. Diane Takvorian, a member of the California Air Sources Board, is the co-founder and former government director of the Environmental Well being Coalition in San Diego/Tijuana.
