Smart Energy Program funds support the rise of polluting megadairies in Oregon, nationwide
Oregon Northwest Natural Gas customers late yesterday sued the company over misleading claims at the heart of its Smart Energy program, which it advertises as a way for customers to “offset” their natural gas emissions by funding projects that the company says “reduce, or prevent the release of, greenhouse gases.” According to the complaint, the company in fact sends customers’ Smart Energy funds to methane digesters that actually promote increased pollution.
Northwest Natural’s Smart Energy program — advertised in flyers, commercials, mailers, and account sign-in popups — requires customers who opt in to pay a monthly fee. It claims in that marketing that offsets paid for through the program are equivalent to taking hundreds of thousands of gasoline-powered cars off the road.
But the fee consumers pay goes to support manure digesters at factory dairies like Boardman, Oregon’s Threemile Canyon Farms, where over 61,000 cows produce between 9 and 16 million pounds of methane per year. These methane emissions are not affected by how the manure of these tens of thousands of cows is managed via digesters.
The plaintiffs in this class action claim that this ‘greenwashing’ is a breach of contract under Oregon law and violates the state’s prohibition on unfair and deceptive marketing claims.
“I signed up for Smart Energy because I’m concerned about the climate crisis. I was willing to pay a bit more to make a green choice,” said Nicolas Blumm, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “Had I known what the program really was, I would never have signed up.”
Nationwide, the commodification and government subsidization of this “manure methane” or “factory farm gas” has “created perverse incentives that even cause some large dairies to increase their already-large greenhouse gas emissions,” according to the complaint.
“The factory farm gas system that Northwest Natural enticed Oregonians concerned about climate change to buy into is entrenching both industrial agriculture and fossil fuel infrastructure,” said FarmSTAND Senior Staff Attorney Kelsey Eberly, who, together with David Sugerman and Nadia Dahab of Sugerman Dahab, represents the Northwest Natural customers in this case. “These factory dairies also pollute their neighbors’ air and water, are driving small dairy producers out of business at an alarming rate, and are the perfect environment for the spread of diseases like bird flu.”
Northwest Natural exploited public concern about the climate impact of natural gas use, and acute interest in mitigating it. As detailed in yesterday’s complaint: the company knew from its own research that most of its customers were very or extremely concerned about climate change, but were not familiar with the details of what “renewable natural gas” schemes entailed.
“Northwest Natural Gas took advantage of its customers. It knew that climate-conscious customers would pay extra to offset their carbon emissions. Northwest Natural Gas wildly misrepresented what it was providing Smart Energy customers,” said David Sugerman. “Greenwashing has got to stop.”