As the Livestock Industry Touts Manure-to-Energy Projects, Environmentalists Cry ‘Greenwashing’
Corporate pork and dairy producers are producing “biogas†to reduce methane emissions. But the actual climate benefits are unclear, and often overstated.
By Georgina Gustin
December 7, 2020
When the world’s largest pork producer and a major public utility announced they would team up to turn hog manure from North Carolina swine farms into energy, they billed their new partnership as a win-win for both the companies and the climate.
With a $500 million commitment and a recently minted joint venture called Align RNG, Smithfield Foods and Dominion Energy set out to capture the methane emitted from giant hog manure “lagoons,†convert it into biogas—what the industries dub “renewable natural gasâ€â€”and inject that biogas into pipelines to heat homes and buildings.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07122020/livestock-industry-manure-energy-natural-gas/
