Friday, January 28, 2022
CapitalPress.com 3
Environmental group seeks to invalidate
green energy credits for dairy digester
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press File
Ben Lonergan/EO Media Group File
A sign welcomes people to Threemile Canyon Farms
near Boardman, Ore.
“We are proud to pro-
vide RNG as an alternative
fuel for transportation vehi-
cles and contribute to carbon
reduction goals,” Maleitzke
said. “The path of innova-
tion isn’t perfect but it is
necessary if we are to con-
tinue to meet the nutritional
needs of our population as
well as ensure the long-term
sustainability of our planet.”
Stanley Young, com-
munications director for
CARB, said the agency is
looking into the matter and
will do its own fact-fi nding
before taking any action.
At stake is a potentially
valuable revenue stream
for large dairies such as
Threemile Canyon. The
USDA Economic Research
Service wrote in 2011 that,
even with moderate car-
bon off set prices, the sale of
credits could substantially
increase revenue for farms
with digesters.
For example, a dairy with
at least 2,500 animals could
generate $419 million in
revenue over 15 years with
credits valued at $13 per ton
of carbon. That is about 46%
of the total value of dairy
digesters.
At $13 per ton, it would
not be profi table for dair-
ies with fewer than 250
head to adopt a digester, the
researchers determined.
Attendees look over the many off erings at the Northwest Ag Show earlier this
month. EO Media Events, the show’s organizer, has announced it will present the
Central Oregon Ag Show March 26-27 at the Deschutes County Fair and Expo Cen-
ter in Redmond.
Central Oregon Ag Show
set to debut March 26-27
REDMOND, Ore. — The fi rst Central
Oregon Ag Show will be March 26 and
27 at the Deschutes County Fair and Expo
Center in Redmond.
The show is presented by Harvest Cap-
ital Company.
Major sponsors include Coastal Farm &
Ranch, Midstate Kubota, WSR Insurance
and Ed Staub and Sons Petroleum.
The show will include three buildings
of exhibits and events in the Three Sisters
Conference Center. As many as 150 exhib-
itors are expected to participate.
The show is a family friendly event
with activities for participants of all ages.
There will be a Buckaroo Breakfast on
Saturday. The show will include a working
dog training demonstration by Clint John-
son and an antique tractor display.
It will be conducted in conjunction with
the High Desert Stampede.
The show is owned by EO Media
Events, a subsidiary of EO Media Group,
and is produced by the Capital Press. The
company also produces the Northwest Ag
Show each January in Salem.
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S273726-1
BOARDMAN, Ore. —
An environmental group is
asking California regulators
to nullify green energy cred-
its for biogas produced from
dairy manure at Oregon’s
Threemile Canyon Farms.
Food & Water Watch
fi led a complaint to the Cal-
ifornia Air Resources Board
on Jan. 19, arguing that
Threemile Canyon was gen-
erating lucrative credits pos-
sibly worth millions of dol-
lars under the state’s Low
Carbon Fuel Standard while
at the same time commit-
ting air quality violations in
Oregon.
Threemile Canyon is
Oregon’s largest dairy with
nearly 70,000 cattle —
including 33,000 milking
cows — along the Colum-
bia River near Boardman. It
is run by R.D. Off utt Co., a
farming corporation head-
quartered in Fargo, N.D.
The farm built an anaero-
bic digester in 2012 to cap-
ture methane emissions
from manure, which was ini-
tially used to generate elec-
tricity that was sold to the
interstate utility Pacifi Corp.
In 2019, Threemile Can-
yon installed $30 million
of new equipment at the
digester plant to convert
methane into “pipeline qual-
ity” natural gas, tapping into
California’s Low Carbon
Fuel Standard, or LCFS.
Iogen Corp., a Cana-
dian fi rm, markets the gas
as a cleaner-burning fuel
for trucks and buses on Los
Angeles freeways.
Created in 2011 by the
California Air Resources
Board, the LCFS is a mar-
ket-based incentive program
specifi cally for the state’s
transportation sector. Com-
panies that produce low-
er-carbon fuels generate
credits that can be sold to
off set emissions from more
carbon-intensive fossil fuels.
The LCFS is one of sev-
eral measures under a 2006
California climate package
that aims to reduce green-
house gas emissions 20% by
2030 and 80% by 2050.
The
board
certi-
fi ed Threemile Canyon’s
bio-methane production on
Sept. 9, 2020, making it eli-
gible to bank and sell LCFS
credits.
However, Food & Water
Watch — part of an envi-
ronmental coalition called
Stand Up to Factory Farms
— is calling for a revocation
of Threemile Canyon’s cred-
its after the farm was fi ned
by the Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality
for violating conditions of
its air quality permit.
According to DEQ,
Threemile Canyon used
excess natural gas at the
digester to dry leftover solid
manure, which is recycled
as animal bedding. The vio-
lations occurred from June
2019 to September 2020,
for which the farm was fi ned
$19,500.
Tyler Lobdell, staff attor-
ney at Food & Water Watch,
said companies that partici-
pate in the LCFS must com-
ply with all environmental
laws.
Even as CARB was
reviewing Threemile Can-
yon’s LCFS application,
Lobdell said the farm was
using excess natural gas.
“Under these circum-
stances, CARB should have
never granted Threemile’s
LCFS application,” he said.
“But the agency has the
opportunity and obligation
to correct that error now.”
Jennifer Maleitzke, a
spokeswoman for R.D.
Off utt, said Threemile Can-
yon takes environmen-
tal compliance seriously
and corrected the situation
immediately after being
notifi ed by DEQ in October
2020. The farm has paid the
fi ne, she said.
Maleitzke said the com-
plaint fi led by Food & Water
Watch ignores the fact that
Threemile Canyon is turning
a waste product into renew-
able energy. Renewable nat-
ural gas is considered carbon
neutral and is fully compati-
ble with the existing gas dis-
tribution infrastructure.