Can the CWSRF Represent a Financial Nexus of Climate Change and Water?
By Michael Curley
In the words of a man who farms 13,000-plus acres and has 12,000 certified tons of carbon credits, “selfless do-gooding is not a motivating factor for most farmers.” Amen.
Farms and farmers have a vitally important role to play in protecting the environment. They are a major factor in the water pollution game. And they could be a major factor in the climate change game, too.
Forty-eight years ago when Congress first passed the Clean Water Act, urban sewage was the main cause of water pollution. $250 billion later, we have largely won that battle. Now the No. 1 and No. 2 sources of water pollution are agricultural runoff and stormwater. Where does climate change come into this picture?
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We have a planet problem, the carbon cycle currently has a bottleneck.
The bottleneck is located at the waste product, which is typical location for problems of all organisms, even humans. The bovine for ag communities is a big source of that waste problem (manure). Methane is secondary problem of that waste product, as a greenhouse gas. As a correction, society employs carbon credits, to reduce resulting greenhouse gases. CAFO digesters that produce methane, receive credits to destroy that methane, by burning methane! In other words, we fund construction of cafo digesters to produce methane and then pay to destroy that methane. The actual market value of the digester methane produced varies, but is approximately $0.10 per day per cow. But the green energy credits increase that methane value by 20 times! And guess who pays that?
Methane is 20 to 30 times more potent than CO2 as greenhouse gases. However, CO2 has a 100+ year atmospheric retention time versus methane that has a 12 year retention time. So we have a choice where to input financial resources to reduce greenhouse gases, methane or CO2. Well guess what industry does not want to reduce CO2? Guess what industry wants to receive value for destruction of methane. The value of methane as energy compared to gallon of gasoline is about $0.25, close to zero, and not enough to support construction and maintenance of digesters!
The cafo digesters are reckoning upon this choice, an industry that can likely absorb all financial resources by manipulation of carbon credits, to fund and profit from these mega digester projects.
The only viable, or better option to anaerobic digesters is aerobic ‘composting’. Why not pay the farmer an equivalent carbon credit for not producing methane? Put the money directly into farmers hands, to do the right thing – composting. Pay the farmer $2 per day per cow directly rather than filling the pockets of the corporate investor, who likely has other incentives for methane destruction.