Policies to Move the Renewable Biogas Industry Forward

That was the topic of a July 17 webinar presented by the recently established American Biogas Council . Among the ideas presented were:

• Investment and production tax credits need to be expanded to parity with other renewable energy sources and extended for several years to provide a stable policy environment for developers and investors.
• Renewable Portfolio Standards or Clean Energy Standards at the state and federal levels need to include renewable biogas as an eligible renewable energy technology and include comparable incentives for heating applications (i.e., incentivize renewable heating and combined heat and power applications, not just electric power production).
• Key federal programs need to be continued and fully funded, such as the USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) , which has provided much of the funding for new anaerobic digesters across rural America, and the Section 1603 Treasury grants in lieu of production tax credits.

Biogas (mostly methane) is still leaking or wastefully flared from many landfills, wastewater treatment plants, and livestock facilities, contributing to climate change. When produced or captured and refined to pipeline quality, it is indistinguishable from fossil natural gas. Using anaerobic digesters to produce renewable biogas from these large organic waste streams can displace a significant portion of the fossil fuels that we use today (e.g., see a 2010 study by National Grid ), while at the same time reducing other environmental problems associated with these wastes.