The Gas Industry’s Survival Plan: Make Fuel From Cow Poop Fossil Fuel Companies Think Renewable Natural Gas Is the Answer to Their PR Problems. Environmentalists Think Not.

by Naureen S Malik (Bloomberg) ... In 2014, Bar-Way began working with Vanguard Renewables to install a biodigester, which uses specialized bacteria to convert organic material—for example, cow poop—into biogas, a versatile fuel. Once it’s purified, this biomethane, also known as renewable natural gas (RNG), is chemically identical to the main ingredient in the fossil-based natural gas that comes out of your stove or heats your water.

“It’s gotten to the point they need a proactive decarbonization strategy,” says Jigar Shah, co-founder of clean energy financier Generate Capital Inc., one of the largest RNG owners in the country. “Natural gas producers now believe their growth prospects are more limited—to the degree that some people said we should be planning for the obsolescence of the natural gas utility.”

That’s where renewable natural gas is supposed to come in. Bovine waste is typically stored in vast open lagoons that emit methane—a greenhouse gas more than 80 times as potent as carbon dioxide over 20 years— making agricultural waste the single biggest contributor to the country’s total methane emissions from human activity. Both biogas and fossil natural gas are mostly methane, and though they burn more cleanly than the megapolluter coal, they still emit carbon dioxide. But by diverting cow poop into biodigesters in the process of making RNG, gas companies argue, the effect is a net climate win. Virginia-based utility giant Dominion Energy Inc. claims that supplying only 4% of its customers with biogas would be enough to offset the emission from its entire gas system.

That’s the type of math that irks Matt Vespa, an attorney for the nonprofit climate litigation group Earthjustice. “Just 4% of the gas needs to be renewable gas, and then all of the sudden you have 100% clean energy,” he says, “requires some shoddy assumptions”—for instance, that all the methane coming out of all those lagoons is inevitable in factory farming. But there are plenty of other ways to solve this problem that don’t extend our reliance on polluting fuels, Vespa says.

Mark Kresowik, a deputy director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, says RNG is a costly distraction that will only slow the energy industry’s transition away from hydrocarbons.

“This is the last gasp of the gas industry. They know that electrification is superior,” Kresowik says. “If you go down that dead-end route, it increases the cost to consumers in the long run.”

That said, getting rid of gas won’t be easy. It’s enjoyed unprecedented growth over the past decade as the boom in shale oil and gas production made costs plummet. Today gas accounts for about a third of America’s total energy consumption, and it’s projected to rise to 40% this year, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show.

Nationwide, RNG could be used to displace 13% of total U.S. gas demand by 2040, according to a study commissioned by the American Gas Foundation last year, along with EIA data.

Over the years, RNG has had an uneasy relationship with the fossil fuel industry, much as solar and wind have clashed with traditional utilities.

SoCalGas has been campaigning the state to embrace RNG amid a push to electrify buildings. So far the effort appears to be paying off. The California Public Utilities Commission is considering a rule that would require the state’s gas utilities to procure a certain percentage of RNG. SoCalGas is also pushing for an RNG credit for both residential and commercial customers, and it’s announced plans to replace 5% of its gas supply with RNG by 2022 and 20% by 2030.

Each week, Melnik (Peter Melnik, whose family has owned Bar-Way Farm Inc. for 101 years) adds about 175 tons of manure, mixed with about 15 to 20 trucks’ worth of food waste from 19 Whole Foods Market stores, a Cabot Creamery plant, New England Natural Bakers, Tree House Brewing, the MGM Springfield casino, and Hood ice cream. What’s left behind is a liquid fertilizer, which can then be further processed to create fluffy dry bedding for the barn. Polly, the grande dame of the herd, had most of her joint pain disappear once Melnik subbed in the biodigester bedding for the hardwood chips she used to sleep on. She’s now one of the farm’s top milk producers. Extracting the methane eliminates almost all of the odor, so neighbors no longer complain about the scent. READ MORE