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Advocates voice biogas concerns with clean fuels rule
Austin Greiner pumps gas at a Maverik gas station in Albuquerque earlier this year. The state believes clean transportation fuel standards could incentivize a broader variety of fuel options at the pump.
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While New Mexico forges ahead in its process to implement more environmentally friendly fuels, some advocates are worried it could do more harm than good.
The clean fuels rule would set up a market around transportation fuels, which are considered gasoline, diesel, petroleum gas, natural gas, hydrogen and electricity.
Last week, the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board announced the public meeting for the proposed rule will start Sept. 22 and run through Oct. 3. The board will convene again in November to continue hearing testimony.
The state Environment Department, or NMED, hopes the rule could go into effect as early as next year.
But some environmental advocates are worried there’s a loophole in the rule that could worsen pollution.
Nonprofit advocacy group Food and Water Watch held a virtual meeting Tuesday to discuss the potential of enabling biogas production, or the procedure of breaking down organic matter like cow manure into a fuel. That fuel is labeled as a renewable energy resource, but Food and Water Watch is worried about the methane that’s generated in the process.
NMED adjusted its rule to take into account some of these concerns, said Tyler Lobdell, senior attorney with Food and Water Watch. Specifically, the proposed rule develops standard values for factory farm biogas “that are far less problematic” than California’s clean fuels program. Critics raised concerns about California’s clean fuel program over negative environmental affects of some biofuel production, such as producing renewable diesel from crops like soybeans, among other concerns.
“The proposed rule requires the carbon intensity of transportation fuel decrease over time, regardless of whether it is gasoline, electricity, biogas, natural gas or any other kind of regulated fuel,” NMED spokesperson Drew Goretzka said.
Anyone can submit written public comment on the rule anytime online at nmed.commentinput.com?id=Q7EpmKPeC, via email to pamela.jones@env.nm.gov or via mail New Mexico Environment Department-Harold Runnels Building, P.O. Box 5469, Santa Fe, NM, 87502.
