Big Ag loves to tout a fantasy where factory farm gas, which is methane gas produced from waste like manure, is good for the environment. The reality is that factory farm gas rewards factory farms for producing more climate-heating gas and entrenches a system of ever larger, more concentrated animal agriculture.
Factory farm gas-related projects sometimes require permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) before they can go forward. Under federal law, FERC can only grant that permission when a proposed project would serve the “public convenience and necessity.” That means FERC can only give the go-ahead to a project if its benefits outweigh its negative effects, including any environmental harms from the project.
We monitor the Federal Register—the federal government’s daily bulletin of agency activities—for any application to FERC that may be related to factory farm gas. When appropriate, we represent community and environmental groups who understand the danger factory farm gas projects pose. These groups provide comments or intervene in agency proceedings before FERC to argue that the agency should consider the harmful environmental consequences of incentivizing factory farm gas production before greenlighting a given project. These environmental harms may include the ramifications of CAFO herd-size expansion, such as increased localized air pollution and production of enteric methane; and harms related to a byproduct of factory farm gas production known as digestate, such as increased ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions.