Going green in California

Monday, January 2, 2012

California is the first American state to try to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and the nation is watching. California's dairy operators have a chance to make money and get an exemption from greenhouse gas emission limits by limiting the amount of methane they produce. Trouble is, they likely can't afford to do it.

A system to capture methane costs about US$8 million, according to The Fresno Bee. Fewer than 20 of 1,600 large dairy operations have such systems. They capture biogas and turn it into electricity or use the gas to run converted tractors. One farmer who built such a system in 2005 says it would cost five times as much now. The major expense, ironically, is from environmental regulations. The only way that it would be economical is to legislate that utilities buy biogas-derived power from farm digesters at a fixed rate. Doesn't that sound like a page out of Ontario's Green Energy Act? BF