Sacramento, CA – Food & Water Watch has submitted a complaint to California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) asking it to invalidate the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credits Oregon’s Threemile Canyon Farms’ factory farm “biogas” operations generated while its gas production facilities were violating Oregon air quality law. The complaint urges CARB to initiate an enforcement action, invalidate all of Threemile Canyon Farms’ unlawfully generated credits, and revoke Threemile’s credit account so it can no longer bank or sell LCFS credits. California’s LCFS is a program whose lucrative credit system allows factory farms to sell factory farm gas derived from manure. 

According to Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality, Threemile Canyon violated its air quality permit for several periods between June 1, 2019 through at least September 30, 2020, releasing illegal amounts of fine particulate matter pollution, which contributes to numerous human health problems. DEQ fined Threemile Canyon $19,500 for those air quality violations. Threemile was violating its permit while it applied for the LCFS program, and when it assured CARB that it was operating in compliance with environmental laws. 

“Anything less than a complete revocation of Threemile Canyon Farms’ credits and account within the LCFS system is unacceptable,” said Food & Water Watch Staff Attorney Tyler Lobdell. “Even as CARB was reviewing and certifying Threemile’s application for California’s LCFS program, the facility’s gas refinery was responsible for unlawful pollution that threatens Oregon’s climate and nearby communities. Under these circumstances, CARB should never have granted Threemile’s LCFS application. But the agency has the opportunity and obligation to correct that error now.”

Food & Water Watch is awaiting CARB’s response to a petition we recently submitted with other environmental, public health and social justice organizations, asking CARB to remove factory farm biogas from California’s LCFS program entirely. The agency is legally bound to respond to the petition by the end of the month.

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Contact: Jessica Gable, (202) 683-2478, [email protected]