Joey Airoso last year hooked his dairy into a huge California renewable energy project, a network of farms that turns the gas leaking off manure from 35,000 cows into a biofuel.
It wasn’t cheap. The total project cost more than $30 million, but a grant from the state’s cap-and-trade program that’s meant to help dairies slash greenhouse gas emissions and comply with a global warming law made Airoso’s decision an easier call.
So far, California has steered at least $260 million in those grants to methane digester projects like the one Airoso joined. The California Air Resources Board projects they’ll remove millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere, and Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking lawmakers to put another $35 million into the dairy grants. More >>