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Newtrient was founded by 12 dairy coopera- Council of Farmer Cooperatives and National
tives to “help farmers, technology providers, Farmers Union.
manure-based product developers and other In a series of policy recommendations, the
stakeholders assess manure related challenges alliance said digesters should be incentivized
and opportunities.”
through a transferable production tax credit.
Given the current market prices, Stoermann says Its report also called for “support for the Agri-
he wants to make sure dairy farms are treated culture Environmental Stewardship Act, intro-
fairly when a salesman knocks on their door. duced by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and
Pat Roberts, R-Kan.” The bill would make
“Sometimes the farmers don’t understand
what the real opportunity is,” he says. digester systems eligible for a 30% investment
“There’s nothing wrong with somebody who’s tax credit to offset upfront installation costs.
going to bring in a lot of capital getting a Some critics object to subsidizing the digest-
good return, but there comes a point when ers, arguing that they primarily benefit very
they need to share that back with the dairy,” large farming operations. “These types of
he says. manure-to-energy schemes are a false solution
Looking at current prices, Stoermann says a to the climate impacts of this industry,” says
cow producing 20 or so MBTUs a year would Tarah Heinzen, an attorney with Food and
be worth about $1,600, but “we sometimes Water Watch. “Putting scarce public resources
see dairies being offered less than $100 for a behind these technologies is going to only
cow. That may be fine as a starting point. But serve to entrench the factory farm industry
it seems to us that if you’re building a $10 and the natural gas industry.”
to $15 million project next to a $10 to $15 She believes the money would be better spent
million dollar dairy, that once you’ve cov- on “truly renewable sources of energy,” such
ered your project costs and profitability, you as solar and wind, and “truly sustainable
should probably share more than 10% of that forms of agriculture.”
opportunity.”
Solar and wind energy sources currently
Markets for low-carbon fuel are spreading. receive their own tax incentives, but they are
“You’ve had Oregon follow suit, I think being phased out and a political fight is brew-
Washington State is close to following suit ing over extending them.
with some kind of carbon mitigation policy,” While digesters generally make sense only for
Kirk says. “So there’s a trend out on the West larger operations, a Vermont program enables
Coast that’s creating a nice stable platform for farms with as few as 250 cows to make money
investment.” off digesters by selling electricity for nearly 20
In addition, the CoBank report notes that cents a kilowatt hour, said Stoermann.
more than a dozen states have adopted clean Stoermann also says that while anaerobic
car standards, “suggesting broader LCFS digestion “is not the perfect solution that some
adoption.” people say it is, it is a step in the right direc-
Digesters also got a big endorsement recently tion” for addressing climate change. “Because
in a report from the Food and Agriculture Cli- the methane never enters the atmosphere
mate Alliance, whose co-chairs include leaders and the carbon dioxide from the fossil fuel
from the American Farm Bureau Federa- never enters the atmosphere, it reduces GHG
tion, Environmental Defense Fund, National impact twice,” he said.
www.Agri-Pulse.com 47
