Or, we could build natural gas and nuclear power plants. Just a thought
Michigan has a new way to fight climate change: Energy from cow poop and urine
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s plan to generate all of Michigan’s energy from renewable sources by 2040 is meant to limit climate change gases. It also has consequences for improving or damaging the state’s waters.
Replacing polluting fossil fuel plants with cleaner energy sources would limit oil pipeline spills, curtail mercury contamination, and halt discharges from coal-fired power plants. But those benefits could be easily overwhelmed by the development of a new renewable energy sector to produce methane from one of the state’s largest causes of water contamination –liquid manure produced by large livestock feeding operations.
The conversion from animal wastes to methane occurs in industrial-scale manure biodigesters. The Red Arrow Dairy in Van Buren County, where two biodigesters rise like giant white mushrooms from fallow fields, displays an apt example of the new energy-generating equipment. Liquid manure, 200,000 gallons daily from nearly 6,000 cows, pours into the digesters, which slowly cook the urine and feces in a warm oxygen-deprived (anaerobic) broth. The result is a stream of methane that is collected and processed for vehicle fuel.
Prompted by changes in state regulations, and federal and state taxpayer incentives worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Michigan in the last two years has been the largest center of manure biodigester development outside California, according to state and federal figures. At a cost of $15 million to $20 million apiece, according to industry data, the new energy sector is attracting big players in Michigan.
It’s not actually a bad idea to take all the cow waste, though it is used for many other things, including fertilizer. But, government shouldn’t be dumping taxpayer money into this.