Groups File Opening Briefs in LCFS Biogas Lawsuit

Yesterday, groups filed an opening brief in their case to force California's Air Resources Board to reform its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) so that it no longer perversely encourages factory farms to pollute at the expense of rural communities in California and across the country.

In amending the LCFS in 2024 to double down on incentives for factory farm "biogas" production, the groups argue that the Air Resources Board violated the California Environmental Quality Act, the California Administrative Procedure Act, and the Global Warming Solutions Act, California landmark climate law from 2006.

Groups include Defensores del Valle Central para el Aire y Agua Límpio ("Defensores"), Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), the Center for Food Safety, and Food & Water Watch.

The brief, filed in Fresno Superior Court, advances three main arguments:
CARB violated California law by causing disproportionate impacts in low-income communities.

CARB violated California law by allowing fossil fuel companies to buy fake LCFS offset credits from factory farms to claim lower climate emissions.
CARB failed to disclose, analyze, and mitigate the significant environmental impacts caused by the LCFS Amendments.

"CARB is encouraging the production of, and has failed to regulate, excessive dairy manure pollution at the expense of air, water, and local communities," said David Rodriguez, founding member of Defensores. "In the Central Valley, we live near 90% of cows in California and some of the largest dairy operations in the entire world. The impacts are getting worse as dairies are getting more cows and dairy digesters are installed."

"CARB has known for years that its perverse and backward policies that reward factory farms for polluting with LCFS credits are bad for the program and bad for Californians. CARB prioritized industry profits over protecting vulnerable communities and achieving real climate progress, and they now have to defend those decisions in court," said Food & Water Watch Staff Attorney Tyler Lobdell, "If California wants to be a climate leader, it needs to act like one."

"CARB should prioritize Californians and their health by reducing dairy and livestock pollution. Instead, it's incentivizing the production of even more manure despite the harm it causes to surrounding communities, the environment and animals suffering in factory farms," said ALDF Litigation Fellow Christian Suarez. "It's critical that CARB works on behalf of Californians to protect their health and well-being instead of helping the industrial animal agriculture industry line its pockets at the public's expense."

"By rewarding industrial dairies for producing factory farm gas, CARB's LCFS program entrenches a harmful model of agriculture while putting smaller, more sustainable farms at a disadvantage," said Center for Food Safety Staff Attorney Kristina Sinclair. "California should be investing in a food and farming system that protects our climate, our environment, and the health of rural communities-not propping up the largest and most polluting factory farms."

Background:

California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard has been the nation's primary driver of factory farm biogas development, both in California and beyond. Food & Water Watch analysis reveals that 196 digesters in 16 states make money off of California's LCFS - out-of-state projects make up 45%.

The LCFS incentivizes pollution in communities across the nation already overburdened with factory farm pollution, including those in California's San Joaquin Valley, through lavish financial incentives for so-called "biogas" produced from manure.

By rewarding methane production on factory farms, the LCFS incentivizes the concentration of animals and animal waste production and exacerbates the negative health impacts of industrial factory farming, including mortality risks, kidney diseases, respiratory conditions, blood pressure elevation, and low birth weight. These impacts disproportionately fall on communities of color and low-income communities.

Petitioners are Defensores del Valle Central para el Aire y Agua Limpio, Food & Water Watch, Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Center for Food Safety. Defensores is represented by Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, the Law Office of Brent Newell, and Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP