Skip Navigation
       
March 2, 2021

1 min. read

Methane Digesters are Not a Climate Solution

Last month, Farm Forward, as a member of the Stand Up to Factory Farms coalition, submitted testimony to the Oregon Senate committee on Natural Resources and Wildlife Recovery urging the committee not to pass Senate Bill 151: The Bovine Manure Tax Credit.

In the testimony, the coalition educated the Senate about how the bill “incentivizes and props up unsustainable mega-dairies in Oregon”, “to the disadvantage of family farm dairies”, “and the detriment of rural communities and the environment”, among other vital pieces of the bill’s impact that the Oregon Senate is sworn to protect its people against.

Our testimony also warned about the misleading solution that biogas presents, which seems to be underwhelmingly understood by those who are blindly relying on its perceived benefits:

 “Mega-dairy digesters are touted for their purported climate benefits from methane capture. But in reality, methane digesters are a false solution to climate change and have no place in Oregon’s clean energy future. Digesters at best capture only the additional methane created by the adoption of factory farm practices in the first place.”
― Farm Forward

The Senate Natural Resources and Wildlife Recovery committee has not yet voted on the bill.

Read the full testimony

To support our work fighting on the right side of history, please consider making a donation to the legislative policy program of Farm Forward.