Environmental and Energy Study Institute

Bipartisan legislation has been introduced in both the House and Senate to encourage livestock producers and processers and landfill operators to capture and use the climate-warming methane gas that is emitted from livestock, landfill, and sewage plant operations. Capturing biogas, which is composed mostly of methane and which, with processing, can be used interchangeably with natural gas, is an important way that the U.S. could quickly reduce a potent source of greenhouse gas emissions and replace fossil fuel sources with a clean, renewable source of heat and power.

Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Mike Johanns (R-NE), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), John Thune (R-SD), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) introduced the Biogas Production Incentive Act of 2009 (S. 306). The bill would provide farmers and landfill operators a tax credit of $4.27 per therm (1 million BTU) for biogas produced from qualified feedstocks and used for energy over a period of 10 years.

“This new energy source would benefit rural communities and the environment while lessening our dependence on fossil fuels and ensuring energy security. We shouldn’t waste the waste; we should promote biogas development,” said Sen. Nelson in a press release introducing the bill.

A similar bill (H.R. 1158) has been introduced in the House by Representative Brian Higgins (D-NY) and a bipartisan group of cosponsors.

According to the U.S. EPA, methane remains in the atmosphere for approximately 9-15 years, and is over 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Landfills are the leading source of U.S. methane emissions, followed in rank order by leaking natural gas systems, enteric fermentation, coal mining, manure management, and waste water treatment.

Globally, landfills are the third largest source of methane emissions from human activities and accounted for 12 percent of global methane emissions in 2005 (almost 750 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent). U.S. landfills accounted for about 17 percent of those emissions. Livestock manure management contributed to roughly four percent of global methane emissions (230 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent), of which U.S. emissions accounted for 17 percent.

Simply burning (flaring) the gas can drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and could provide carbon offset opportunities. However, using biogas instead of fossil fuels to generate electricity, heat, or liquid fuel not only further reduces emissions, but can also replace the use of other fossil fuels as a clean, cost-effective, renewable energy source. Biogas is particularly appealing to farmers because, in addition to the energy benefits, the anaerobic digestion process that is used controls manure odor, reduces harmful water run-off, and produces a liquid manure.

According to the EPA’s AgStar website, 125 farms in the U.S. are using anaerobic digesters to capture the gas, producing more than 290,000 MWh in 2008. EPA estimates that there are about 7000 livestock operations in the U.S. that could cost-effectively use such a system, potentially producing more than six million megawatt hours of power per year.

For example, Patterson Farms, Inc. of Auburn NY, an 1,800 head dairy farm, installed an aerobic digester to control odor and improve manure management. The farm mixes the manure with food waste from a nearby cheese plant run by Kraft Foods, which pays a tipping fee. The farm uses the gas to heat the digester and to produce electricity.
In another example of a successful and innovative biogas project, ethanol producer Poet recently announced the completion of a 10-mile landfill gas (LFG) pipeline from the Sioux Falls Regional Sanitary Landfill to its 105 million gallon per year ethanol plant. The pipeline, which has been supplying the plant’s boilers with LFG since late February, provides additional revenue to Sioux Falls and lowers the ethanol plant’s energy costs.

Rural small businesses and agricultural producers are already eligible to apply for grants and loan guarantees for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, including anaerobic digesters, authorized under Section 2007 of the 2008 Farm Bill (P.L. 110-246), the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).