Story 2016-09-21 1VERA California bill will cut greenhouse emissions from cows

California bill will cut greenhouse emissions from cows

by
in environment on (#1VERA)
California's Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Monday to reduce a variety of pollutants, from hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used in aerosol and air conditioning refrigerants, black carbon from diesel trucks, to methane from cows. Livestock contribute about 14.5 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions, methane accounts for about 44 percent of that, of which cows contribute the lion's share. Cows release most of their methane directly by belching and flatulence, but approximately one third comes from their manure.

In California, dairy farmers will be required to reduce methane emissions from manure to 40 percent below their 2013 levels by 2030. They will receive $50 million from the fees the state collects from polluters through its cap-and-trade program. The funding will go toward buying methane digesters, which generate energy from the methane in manure. The energy will be sold to electrical utilities. The law also allows the Air Resources Board to regulate cow flatulence in the future, if and when a practical technology exists to reduce it. If successful, it could inspire other nations to follow suit. The United States is behind India as the largest dairy producer in the world.
Reply 10 comments

By feeding the cows very large condoms (Score: 1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-09-21 12:56 (#1VG8K)

3. Then collecting the gas from the other end.
4. Proffit

Is anybody surprised? (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-09-21 13:09 (#1VGAH)

Jerry Brown is elected governor and all kinds of crazy ensues. Now they are looking at regulating cow farts.

Re: Is anybody surprised? (Score: 0)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2016-09-22 10:12 (#1VGJP)

Jerry Brown is elected governor and all kinds of crazy ensues.
So you're suggesting California was good and perfectly sane back when Arnold Schwarzenegger was the elected Governator of the state?

Re: Is anybody surprised? (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-09-21 15:31 (#1VGW5)

They could just kill the cows. Where I work they fix morale problems by firing the unhappy people.

Re: Is anybody surprised? (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2016-09-29 05:42 (#1WC8N)

Foxconn?

Oh wait, you said "firing," not "firing at".

Always have to ask yourself (Score: 1)

by sennekaul@pipedot.org on 2016-09-21 22:20 (#1VJ8F)

Who stands to profit from this? Who were the corporate sponsors for the legislators that put this through the state house in order for Brown to sign? Could it be the vendor that wants to produce the methane digesters the one that greased the palms, or was it the industrialized dairy lobby seeking to edge out the last of the family-farm type producers?

Of course, any real line of inquiry as to the actual motivations of who produced this legislation will be met with 'why do you hate the environment so much'.

Re: Always have to ask yourself (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2016-09-22 10:08 (#1VKQP)

Who were the corporate sponsors for the legislators that put this through the state house in order for Brown to sign?
If you've got any facts to that effect, I'd love to hear it. However I don't see any use in vague speculation about possible sinister motives and actors...

The interested parties listed in the articles are environmental groups pushing for STRONGER restrictions, and dairy farming groups pushing back, which seems obvious. The sponsor of the bill happens to be a gay Hispanic man (whose parents were illegal immigrants), representing a depressed corner of Los Angeles (which notably lacks cows), and who doesn't appear to be getting significant money from any organizations that might be interested in this bill.

Even if some ulterior motives were involved, the law can still be evaluated on its face without worrying too much about those side-concerns.

Per Capita (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2017-07-17 18:34 (#2WPN1)

Per capita, the U.S. only ranks 16th in milk consumption. Finland is number 1. Are they working on this?

Flatulence (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2019-07-29 15:44 (#4M5KA)

Are there *any* usable technologies to harvest bovine flatulence?