Newly appointed California Sen. Laphonza Butler will not seek election to a full term in 2024

• October 19, 2023

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD | AP Political Writer

LOS ANGELES — Newly appointed California Democratic Sen. Laphonza Butler will not seek election to a full term in 2024, avoiding what would have been a costly and competitive race for the seat held for three decades by the late Dianne Feinstein.

Butler — who was named earlier this month by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to complete Feinstein’s remaining term — said in a statement she made the decision after considering “what kind of life I want to have, what kind of service I want to offer and what kind of voice I want to bring forward.”

“Knowing you can win a campaign doesn’t always mean you should run a campaign. I know this will be a surprise to many because traditionally we don’t see those who have power let it go,” Butler added. “It may not be the decision people expected but it’s the right one for me.”

Her candidacy would have complicated an already crowded race that includes several other prominent Democrats — U.S. Reps. Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee — and Republican Steve Garvey, a former baseball MVP.

Butler, a Democratic insider and former labor leader, had never held public office before joining the Senate.

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​ Orange County Register 

Newsom plans one-day Israel visit on his way to China

• October 19, 2023

By Tran Nguyen | Associated Press

SACRAMENTO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is planning a one-day visit to Israel this week to meet people affected by that country’s war with Hamas, stopping over en route to China where he will discuss policies to curb global warming.

The Democratic governor is set to arrive Friday in Israel with plans to depart later that same day for Hong Kong. His office didn’t immediately answer questions about his schedule and activities in Israel.

“I’m on my way to Israel,” Newsom confirmed in a message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I’ll be meeting with those impacted by the horrific terrorist attacks and offering California’s support.”

California is also sending medical supplies to the region, including provisions intended for the Gaza Strip, his office said.

On Wednesday, Newsom announced more security funding for places of worship in California, including $10 million to immediately increase the police presence at such places as mosques and synagogues.

“Amid the horror unfolding in the Middle East following the unconscionable terrorist attacks in Israel, California is authorizing the immediate deployment of funds to increase security” at worship sites, Newsom said in a statement. “No matter how and where one prays, every Californian deserves to be safe.”

California is home to the largest population of Arab Americans in the United States, according to the Arab American Institute. It also has the second largest populations of Jews in the U.S., according to the American Jewish Population Project at Brandeis University.

The war that began on Oct. 7 after Hamas militants stormed into Israel, and Israel vowed to destroy the militant group, has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides.

Newsom’s visit comes after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul arrived Wednesday in Israel to offer solidarity and support. President Joe Biden also wrapped up a 7 1/2-hour visit to Israel that same day in which he negotiated a deal for limited humanitarian aid into Gaza from Egypt.

Newsom is scheduled to participate in a weeklong tour focused on climate change policies in China, starting in Hong Kong on Monday. He will also visit Beijing, Shanghai and the provinces of Guangdong and Jiangsu.

​ Orange County Register 

Biden will deliver a rare Oval Office address as he seeks billions of dollars for Israel and Ukraine

• October 19, 2023

By CHRIS MEGERIAN and SEUNG MIN KIM

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will deliver a rare Oval Office address Thursday night as he prepares to ask for additional billions of dollars in military assistance for Israel and Ukraine, deepening American involvement in two very different, unpredictable and bloody foreign conflicts.

The speech will be an opportunity for Biden to argue that the United States has an obligation — and a national security interest — in both places. And it’s a chance for him to publicly lobby lawmakers for the money.

The funding request, expected to be formally unveiled on Friday, is likely to be around $100 billion over the next year, according to people directly familiar with the proposal who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The total figure includes some money for Taiwan’s defense and for managing the flow of migrants at the southern border with Mexico.

Biden hopes that combining all of these issues into one piece of legislation will create the necessary political coalition for congressional approval. His speech comes the day after his high-stakes trip to Israel, where he showed solidarity with the country in its battle against Hamas and pushed for more humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Ahead of his address, Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stress that the U.S. remained committed to backing Kyiv, the White House said. And a senior White House official said Biden continued to develop his remarks on Thursday after working with close aides throughout the week, including on his flight home from Israel. The official declined to be identified ahead of the president’s speech.

Biden faces an array of steep challenges as he tries to secure the money. The House remains in chaos because the Republican majority has been unable to select a speaker to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted more than two weeks ago.

In addition, conservative Republicans oppose sending more weapons to Ukraine as its battle against the Russian invasion approaches the two-year mark. Biden’s previous request for funding, which included $24 billion to help with the next few months of fighting, was stripped out of budget legislation last month despite a personal plea from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The White House has warned that time is running out to prevent Ukraine, which recently struggled to make progress in a grueling counteroffensive, from losing ground to Russia because of dwindling supplies of weapons.

There will be resistance on the other side of the political spectrum when it comes to military assistance for Israel, which has been bombarding the Gaza Strip in response to the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.

Critics have accused Israel of indiscriminately killing civilians and committing war crimes by cutting off essential supplies like food, water and fuel.

Bipartisan support for Israel has already eroded in recent years as progressive Democrats have become more outspoken in their opposition to the country’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory, which is widely viewed as illegal by the international community.

There are rumbles of disagreement within Biden’s administration as well. Josh Paul, a State Department official who oversaw the congressional liaison office dealing with foreign arms sales, resigned over U.S. policy on weapons transfers to Israel.

“I cannot work in support of a set of major policy decisions, including rushing more arms to one side of the conflict, that I believe to be short-sighted, destructive, unjust and contradictory to the very values that we publicly espouse,” he wrote in a statement posted to his LinkedIn account.

Paul is believed to be the first official to have resigned in opposition to the administration’s decision to step up military assistance to Israel after the Oct. 7 attack.

While visiting Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Biden told Israel that “we will not let you ever be alone.” However, he cautioned Israelis against being “consumed” by rage as he said the United States was after the Sept. 11 attacks of 2001.

Wartime decision-making, Biden said, “requires asking very hard questions” and “clarity about the objectives and an honest assessment about whether the path you are on will achieve those objectives.”

A speech from the Oval Office is one of the most prestigious platforms that a president can command, an opportunity to try to seize the country’s attention at a moment of crisis. ABC, NBC and CBS all said they would break into regular programming to carry the address live.

Biden has delivered only one other such speech during his presidency, after Congress passed bipartisan budget legislation to avert a default on the country’s debt.

The White House and other senior administration officials, including Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young, have quietly briefed key lawmakers in recent days about the contours of the planned supplemental funding request.

The White House plans to formally unveil Biden’s supplemental request on Friday, according to two officials familiar with the plans, although the timing could change.

The Senate plans to move quickly on Biden’s request, hoping that it creates pressure on the Republican-controlled House to resolve its leadership drama and return to legislating.

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Border security will likely be a contentious issue in spending conversations.

Although there was a lull in migrant arrivals to the U.S. after the start of new asylum restrictions in May, illegal crossings topped a daily average of more than 8,000 last month.

“There’s a huge need to reimburse for the costs of processing,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who leads a Senate panel that oversees funding for the Department of Homeland Security. “So it’s personnel costs, it’s soft-sided facilities, it’s transportation costs.”

Biden’s decision to include funding for Taiwan in his proposal is a nod toward the potential for another international conflict. China wants to reunify the self-governing island with the mainland, a goal that could be carried out through force.

Although wars in Europe and the Middle East have been the most immediate concerns for U.S. foreign policy, Biden views Asia as the key arena in the struggle for global influence.

The administration’s national security strategy, released last year, describes China as “America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge.”

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Mary Clare Jalonick and AP media writer David Bauder contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Mary Lou Retton experiences ‘scary setback’ in her fight against a rare form of pneumonia, daughter says

• October 19, 2023

Retired Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Mary Lou Retton experienced a “scary setback” in her fight against a rare form of pneumonia this week, after showing remarkable progress towards recovery just days ago, her daughter said Wednesday night.

Retton is still in the intensive care unit and is “really exhausted” after the setback, her daughter Shayla Kelley Schrepfer said in a video posted to Instagram.

“At the beginning of this week, we were going on the up and up. We were so excited, seeing so much progress, and then yesterday we had a pretty scary setback,” Schrepfer said. “She is still in ICU, and we’re just working through some things as far as her setback goes.”

This month, Retton’s family announced the 55-year-old had a rare form of pneumonia that left her fighting for her life. Her daughter McKenna Kelley started an online fundraiser on behalf of Retton’s four daughters to help support the medical costs, noting that Retton is uninsured.

Earlier in the week, Schrepfer said that although 55-year-old Retton still needed intensive care, her breathing was becoming stronger, and she no longer had to rely so heavily on machines.

“Mom’s progress is truly remarkable!” Schrepfer wrote. “Prayers have been felt and have been answered.”

Pneumonia is a respiratory infection that can cause the lungs to fill with fluid, with symptoms that can range from mild to life threatening. Adults older than 65, children younger than 5 and those with other medical conditions are most at risk. The family did not specify the type of rare pneumonia her mother is diagnosed with.

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“We hope that you guys will respect her boundaries, as we want to keep the details between her and our family right now,” Schrepfer said in an earlier Instagram post.

Retton won five medals during the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles – more than any other athlete at those games – making her a household name.

She was the first US woman to earn an Olympic gold in the individual all-around event and was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997.

​ Orange County Register 

Pac-12 football: Our 15 bold predictions for the second half of an epic season

• October 19, 2023

Earlier this week, the Hotline offered our midseason review, a look at the best and worst of the Pac-12 at the halfway point of fall like no other.

Now, let’s cast an eye to what should be a riveting stretch run.

The conference has six ranked teams, three Heisman Trophy contenders, a handful of playoff hopefuls and loads of high-profile games on the schedule.

Presenting our predictions for the second half, in rough chronological order.

1. Utah quarterback Cam Rising doesn’t set foot on the field this season due to a prolonged recovery from knee surgery. But in their ongoing attempt to keep opponents guessing, the Utes release blurry drone footage of what appears to be Rising in full uniform, working with the first team. Closer inspection reveals it’s actually 305-pound backup right guard Falcon Kaumatule wearing No. 7 and a knee brace. Even without Rising, the Utes win nine games in one of Kyle Whittingham’s finest coaching jobs.

2. Oregon State and Washington State settle their lawsuit against the Pac-12 before the preliminary injunction hearing in Whitman County, Wash., on Nov. 14. The plaintiffs and defendants agree to a bifurcated governance structure in which an independent arbiter determines which issues impact all 12 schools and which affect only the ‘Pac-2.’ The source of the arbiter’s unlikely success? He’s equally disliked by both sides of the dispute. His name: Larry Scott.

3. On Nov. 12, the day after USC allows 52 points in a loss at Oregon, coach Lincoln Riley relents to public pressure and dismisses defensive coordinator Alex Grinch.

4. A week later, the Trojans hold UCLA to 49 points in a narrow victory in front of 73,286 fans at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Riley is hailed as a genius by USC fans.

5. That same day, Stanford beats Cal 12-11 in front of 17,328 fans at Stanford Stadium. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips is informed of the outcome while accompanying the Stanford volleyball team on its trip to USC and UCLA.

6. Oregon State beats Washington in an overtime thriller, aided by a favorable fourth-down spot that draws UW’s ire but is not overturned by the instant replay booth. However, the Beavers fall one game short of a berth in the conference championship because of an earlier loss to Arizona.

7. ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ broadcasts from Eugene on the morning of the USC-Oregon game. The guest picker: Gonzaga basketball coach Mark Few. The 1987 Oregon graduate picks the Ducks to win, then uses the occasion to announce Gonzaga will join the Big 12.

8. Washington State’s Jake Dickert doesn’t leave Pullman to become the next coach at Michigan State as the Cougars’ second-half skid undermines his candidacy.

9. Washington’s Kalen DeBoer receives a new contract that doubles his salary, to about $8 million annually, to prevent him from becoming the next coach at Michigan State. “I didn’t want to do it,” UW president Ana Mari Cauce says, “but I wanted to keep my job.”

10. The Pac-12 issues a public mea culpa for an egregious officiating decision. We don’t know the specifics of the gaffe or which team will be victimized — Washington State is a good bet — but the conference doesn’t make it through the season without a display of utter incompetence. The only question is whether there’s a second. And a third.

11. Arizona State goes winless in conference play for the first time since joining the Pac-12 in 1978 as the injuries and postseason ban are too great to overcome. When the season ends, the NCAA slaps the Sun Devils with minor penalties for recruiting violations and calls the administration’s self-imposed sanctions excessive. “Bowl bans are so pre-COVID. We don’t do that stuff anymore.”

12. Arizona clinches a bowl berth for the first time since 2017 behind freshman quarterback Noah Fifita. The Big 12 promptly rescinds its membership invitation and explains that the Wildcats joined the conference under false pretenses, having claimed to be a basketball school.

13. Colorado misses the postseason despite the 3-0 start and spending a month at the center of the sport. CU fans everywhere rejoice as the late-season collapse makes coach Deion Sanders less attractive for openings across college football, the NFL and the Biden Administration.

14. Commissioner George Kliavkoff refuses to hold a news conference prior to the Pac-12 championship game, continuing a stretch of radio silence that began with the collapse of the conference on Aug. 4. Nobody cares.

15. One-loss Washington defeats one-loss Oregon in the conference title game and reaches the College Football Playoff, with the Ducks accepting a Fiesta Bowl invitation as the consolation prize. The Huskies’ victory is made possible when Oregon, leading by six points in the final minute, attempts to convert fourth-and-17 from its own 20. The off-tackle run fails, and UW scores the winning touchdown.

Enjoy the stretch run, everyone.

*** Send suggestions, comments and tips (confidentiality guaranteed) to [email protected] or call 408-920-5716

*** Follow me on Twitter: @WilnerHotline

*** Pac-12 Hotline is not endorsed or sponsored by the Pac-12 Conference, and the views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conference.

​ Orange County Register 

University of California activist letter blames Israel for Hamas’ crimes, condemns calls for peace

• October 19, 2023

While the letter signed by dozens of Harvard University student groups blaming Israel for Hamas’ terrorism has received national attention, a letter signed by groups and individuals affiliated with the University of California system has received scant attention.

The letter, which was circulating on social media within days of Hamas’ terrorist assault on Israeli civilians, holds Israel, not Hamas, responsible. “To blame anyone other than the Zionist Israeli government and its settlers mischaracterizes this struggle and fuels the ongoing violence,” the letter declares. “Although international law states that Palestians’ (sic) have the right to defend themselves in their ancestral homelands, it is evident these rights only apply to some.”

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The letter goes on to engage in direct apologia for Hamas’ butchery, arguing, “To police Palestinian means of resistance and demand that they be perfect victims and resistant subjects is part of the genocidal campaign against Palestinians.”

The radical screed then goes on to link the situation in Gaza to the University of California: “As it attempts to reckon with its legacy as a land-grab institution, the University of California must also reckon with its complicity in ongoing settler-colonial projects in the United States and abroad. Land acknowledgements are not enough if they are empty signifiers.”

Among the signers of the letter include pro-Palestinian student groups, like Students for Justice in Palestine UCSB and  Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA, as well as hundreds of faculty, alumni and students.

“This statement is nothing less than a call for Palestinian liberation,” they write. “We remember and become accomplices to liberation. At this time, we refuse any calls for ‘peace’ which are just calls for the quiet submission of Palestinians to an early grave.”

These extremists are what pass, apparently, for the “educated” among us. It’s a disgrace.

​ Orange County Register 

Who’s brought in the most money so far in the race for Rep. Katie Porter’s open congressional seat?

• October 19, 2023

Republican Scott Baugh for the third straight quarter has reported a fundraising edge over Democrats in California’s 47th congressional district, according to reports posted this week with the Federal Election Commission.

In the third quarter of fundraising, which spans from July 1 to Sept. 30, Baugh raised $417,715 and spent $48,555.

The race features a crowded slate of candidates, among them Baugh, Democratic state Sen. Dave Min, Republican businessman Max Ukropina and Democratic community organizer Joanna Weiss.

Min raised $311,196 in the third quarter.

And in that same period, Weiss brought in $400,049, including the $100,000 she loaned her campaign. She loaned her campaign $95,000 in the second quarter as well.

Ukropina, who entered the race in April, brought in $121,218 during the third quarter, personally contributing a little over $2,000.

Breaking down the numbers

Like Baugh’s, the three other leading campaigns in the race for Rep. Katie Porter’s open congressional district have all hit a mid-campaign lull, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

A money slowdown at this stage of the election cycle is not all that surprising, said Dan Schnur, who teaches political messaging at UC Berkeley and USC.

“Most campaigns start out with a burst of energy and enthusiasm as candidates reach out to their closest friends and past supporters,” Schnur said. “The third quarter can often be the in-between period after the candidate has already picked the low-hanging fruit but before the campaign is more visible as the election gets closer.”

The coastal CA-47 — which includes Irvine, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach — is one of 33 Republican-held or open seats in the country that the national Democratic Party’s campaign arm is eyeing as a “critical battleground” to win a House majority. And Republicans, too, see the seat as a “top target” to pick up in 2024.

Porter launched a 2024 bid for the U.S. Senate in January.

Democrats have a slight upper hand in voter registration in the district: 35.6% of voters in the district registered as Democrats, 33.9% as Republicans and 24.5% list no party preference.

Spending habits

The two Democrats in the race and Ukropina blew through cash in the third quarter at a faster rate than Baugh did; all three spent more than half of what they raised.

Min doled out just over $191,000, 60% of his third-quarter haul. Of that, he spent $70,000 on various consulting services, including digital, fundraising, research and legal. The rest of his expenditures went toward air travel, office supplies, online advertising, software rental and staff salaries, among other fees.

Weiss spent close to $202,000, 67% of her haul minus the loan. She also poured over $70,000 into fundraising, digital and campaign consulting.

And Ukropina, a political newcomer, spent more than $80,000, close to 70% of what he brought in. Of that, he spent nearly $50,000 on consulting services and another $2,861 on ads.

Baugh, on the other hand, spent just over 11% of his haul from July 1 to Sept. 30. A little over 30% of his spending, $16,091, went toward consulting, while the rest went to software, bookkeeping, travel, lodging and food.

“(Baugh’s) campaign is probably saving money for post-primary because there’s not as much pressure on them as there is with the two Democrats facing each other,” Schnur said.

In California, all candidates running for office are listed on a single ballot and only the top two vote-getters in the primary — regardless of party preference — advance to the general election.

Given Baugh’s status as the “only well-funded Republican in the race,” Schnur said, he’s likely to advance to the general election in November.

“That means Min and Weiss are fighting for that other spot,” Schnur said. “So it shouldn’t be surprising that they’re spending more aggressively given the more immediate stakes that they’re facing.”

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“While the career politicians in this race will need millions of dollars to defend their failed records, our outsider campaign for new leadership has raised half a million dollars entirely from grassroots conservatives who know that I am the strongest candidate to win,” Ukropina said.

In 2018, Porter became the first Democrat to hold office in what was then the 45th congressional district after she defeated incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters. Last year, Porter won a tight race against Baugh.

Baugh entered October with the most cash on hand: over $1.3 million.

Min and Weiss closed out the quarter with $825,542 and $832,638 still left to spend, respectively, while Ukropina had $323,097 at the close of the reporting period.

​ Orange County Register 

What’s wrong with climate credits for cow poop? California regulators would like a word

• October 19, 2023

More than a decade ago, California helped spark a boom in biofuels — produced from plants or animal waste — with its first-of-its-kind Low Carbon Fuel Standard. The program forces carbon-intensive fuel companies to pay for cleaner burning transportation fuels.

But as the state eyes an electric future, winding down support for some of the fuels the standard helped proliferate is proving highly contentious. The case of biofuel made from dairy farm manure is perhaps Exhibit A of those tensions.

The California Air Resources Board is planning to overhaul its fuel standard, including consideration of a 2040 phaseout of credits that put a premium on using methane emitted by cows to produce natural gas. About half of the state’s methane emissions come from dairy and livestock, so collecting the gases wafting off of manure keeps them out of the atmosphere and offers a renewable source of fuel.

But the paradox is that dairy biogas is used to produce a combustion fuel — which the state is on a path to phase out, especially for cars and trucks. The air board is considering a phaseout of the dairy credits because they encourage natural gas production, which emits greenhouse gases.

The manure debate has major implications for California’s role as a climate leader. During New York Climate Week last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom launched an international climate initiative aimed at reducing global methane emissions. Under a state law, California must cut its methane emissions 40% from 2013 levels by 2030.

The reason for the urgency: Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that’s responsible for up to 30% of the world’s global warming that is driving climate change. Unlike other greenhouse gases, methane breaks down in about a decade, meaning curbing it could quickly reduce some of climate change’s impacts.

California is America’s dairy capital, with more than 1.7 million cows producing about $10 billion worth of milk last year — but these cows and other livestock in California also produced the climate-altering equivalent of almost 23 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2020. Most of that is methane emitted by cow manure and from their farts and belches.

California’s strategy for cutting its methane footprint has so far hinged on providing incentives, mostly to the dairy industry. In doing so, the state has spawned a complicated, niche industry dedicated to capturing dairy methane and selling it as a renewable fuel. California does this through grants for construction of digesters — recovery systems that trap the methane from manure — and valuable climate credits from its Low Carbon Fuel Standard program.

The biofuel produced by collecting methane from dairy and swine manure is used to produce natural gas that powers heavy-duty trucks and other fleets — the equivalent of 21 million gallons of diesel fuel in the first three months of the year, according to air board data.

The state program “creates significant environmental and environmental justice impacts…The pollution of groundwater, odors, air quality, massive ammonia emissions and flies.”

Phoebe Seaton, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability

Producers of dairy biogas say phasing out the special credits for capturing methane would upend what has been a success story, devastating the industry and halting the state’s progress on methane reductions.

“If they do that, then that essentially takes away most of the value — in terms of this gas being low-carbon — and really undermines the whole reason we do this,” said Daryl Mass, chief executive of Mass Energy, a digester developer company that has built numerous methane-capturing projects on California’s dairy farms. “If the rules change, and that gas is no longer low-carbon, then we don’t really have a business model.”

But environmental groups and others are pushing for a more aggressive phaseout. They say the credits support industrial dairy farms that pollute rural, low-income communities in the Central Valley.

“The state has decided — instead of regulating methane emissions — to incentivize and provide preferences for the production of methane in a manner that also creates significant environmental and environmental justice impacts,” said Phoebe Seaton, executive director of the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, a Fresno-based environmental advocacy group. “One is the pollution of groundwater, (and) odors, air quality, massive ammonia emissions and flies.”

Phasing out credits for dairy gases

Born out of the state’s 2006 climate law, the goal of the air board’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard is reducing the climate impact of transportation fuels by 20% between 2013 and 2030. Companies that produce more carbon intensive fuels must buy credits to offset their emissions, while lower-scoring fuels produce credits that can be sold. The fuels are graded using a “life cycle” evaluation that judges not just how clean those fuels burn, but also the carbon dioxide emitted during their production and distribution.

The program has reduced the carbon footprint of fuels, particularly for medium and heavy-duty trucks. So much so that the price of the program’s credits have plummeted as producers have rushed into the market: The credits fell to a weekly average price of $62.93 last week, compared to $180.87 two years prior. A large bank of unused credits now exists.

The board’s staff is expected to unveil its plan to overhaul the Low Carbon Fuel Standard before the end of this year and the board would vote in early 2024. The agency is considering making the carbon intensity requirements for fuels more stringent, weighing a 30% reduction by 2030 and 90% by 2045.

The board also could limit credits to only dairy biogas used in California. Currently the rules allow credits if it is injected anywhere into the North American natural gas pipeline.

Most concerning for California dairies, and the dairy biogas industry, is an effort to do away with “avoided methane crediting.” Currently dairy biogas is allocated a very low carbon intensity compared to other fuels, because it comes from captured methane.

The Air Resources Board says that eliminating this crediting by 2040 will both support the digester development in the near-term while sending a long-term signal that the state support won’t last forever.

On a recent afternoon, the Calgren Renewable Fuels facility loomed over Highway 99 like an agroindustrial cathedral amid the almond orchards, cornfields, dairy farms and canals surrounding it.

Travis Lane, chief executive of Calgren near the Tulare County town of Pixley, said doing away with this crediting would likely render a considerable part of his biogas operation worthless.

“There’s no reason to do it (otherwise),” Lane said. “You’re going to push people back to fossil natural gas.”

Calgren CEO Travis C. Lane walks through the facility, which produces natural gas from the methane collected at several farms with digesters. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

For the last 14 years, making biofuels out of organic matter has been the company’s business model. In a county where cows outnumber people, Calgren has gone all in on making natural gas from methane captured from 20 of Tulare County’s dairy farms.

But the cost of trapping the methane from farms, transporting it, cleaning it and injecting it into the state’s natural gas pipeline makes dairy biogas uncompetitive compared to other fuels. Lane said the proposal to phase out the special treatment of dairy biogas caught him by complete surprise.

About seven miles away, the origin of Calgren’s natural gas supply sat close to the ground like a tethered balloon.

Dairy owner Jared Fernandes stands on the digester on his farm the Legacy Ranches near Pixley . Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

At Legacy Ranches, Jared Fernandes, 51, a third-generation dairy farmer, jumped atop his dairy digester to demonstrate the strength of the massive industrial tarp, which covers an unseen manure lagoon about the size of a football field.

“They said you can drive a car on this — they say it’s that strong,” said Fernandes, his stocky frame undulating against the relentlessly flat terrain.

Flies swarmed. Nearby a mechanical contraption whirred, pumping fresh solid manure onto a growing brown pile. The solids are saved as fertilizer while the liquid gets pumped into the covered lagoon.

Walking on the tarp — filled with the gaseous methane — was similar to stepping on a bounce house at a child’s birthday party.

“I wanted to be on the cutting edge, with a company that was going to help me do it. I would never have done this on my own.”

Jared Fernandes, Legacy Ranches

Fernandes first saw a methane digester as an 8-year-old child in the 4-H agriculture program. He was born into the dairy business and has always appreciated technology and the latest developments in ag tech, but installing a digester on his own dairy never made financial sense — until Calgren approached him in 2018 with a plan to build his digester and lease the land.

A digester uses bacteria that feed on the waste in a covered environment, producing biogas and fertilizer for crops. Fernandes provides the cow poop to Calgren, under the terms of his “manure supply agreement,” and Calgren pays him based on the price of the biogas, largely dictated by the prices of credits created under the Low Carbon Fuel Standard.

His digester, constructed by Maas Energy and Calgren, cost $3.5 million to build, according to Calgren, paid for by a $1.5 million grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture plus $2 million in private investment. Fernandes’ farm is one of 20 participating in a cluster that feeds into Calgren’s pipelines, which serves SoCal Gas.

Left: A machine separates manure from wastewater being fed into the digester at Legacy Ranches. Right: The digester system at Legacy Ranches. Photos by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

Without the digester, Fernandes said he would have just kept the manure in an open lagoon, with climate-changing methane bubbling and popping and rising into the air uncontained.

“I wanted to be on the cutting edge, with a company that was going to help me do it,” Fernandes said. “I would never have done this on my own.”

At Legacy Farms, Fernandes manages 3,000 Jersey cows, the light brown breeds that can produce high-fat butter and protein-rich milk for less feed than their popular rivals, the black and white Holstein breeds.

A proliferation of dairy digesters

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California has 120 digesters operating on dairy farms, serving 128 dairies, according to Dairy Cares, which promotes the digester approach to methane reduction. An additional 99 are under development. Most of these projects are in the Central Valley, where California’s industrial scale dairy industry is situated. The state has 17 other clusters with a model similar to Calgren’s serving ancillary dairies.

While the technology has existed for decades, the industry took off in earnest in the Central Valley when the California Department of Food and Agriculture began providing grants for digesters in 2015.

Big players, including the oil industry, have taken interest in digester investment. BP in 2021 announced a plan to develop renewable natural gas in partnership with three California dairies. Shell said it has similar plans with dairies outside of California.

Chevron, which last year announced a joint venture with California Bioenergy, wrote to the Air Resources Board that removing the credits for biogas “will lead to cancellations of future digester projects and shutdown of existing projects.”

But environmental groups say the Low Carbon Fuel Standard incorrectly treats the methane from the large manure lagoons as a naturally occurring phenomenon rather than as the result of deliberate industry practices. The use of lagoons to store manure slurry flushed out of animal pens has proliferated in recent decades as farms have consolidated and ncreased in size.

First: Maria Arevalo stands in the backyard of her daughter’s home in Visalia. Arevalo, who has lived in Pixley for 47 years, says emissions from the dairy have affected her breathing. Last: Maria Arevalo shows the CPAP mask she wears every night because of her sleep apnea. Photos by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

Maria Arevalo, 74, a former agricultural industry worker turned environmental advocate, said people in Pixley, where she lives, suffer from diseases and discomforts from air pollution, including asthma, sleep apnea, burning noses and eyes, and headaches.

She said the smells and flies from the large dairies surrounding her town have gotten worse. She doesn’t believe the digesters have helped.

“The aroma smells like ammonia, and when you smell that ammonia smell you can really feel it. Your nose burns when you breathe it in,” Arevalo said in an interview with CalMatters.

Inside Climate News reported that processed manure from the digesters might be responsible for increased ammonia emissions. Ammonia is a toxic gas that can cause respiratory effects and aggravate asthma.

Reward an industry or regulate it?

The debate over rewarding or regulating the dairy industry comes down to which is better: a carrot-or-stick approach.

Earlier this year, state Sen. Ben Allen, a Redondo Beach Democrat, introduced Senate Bill 709 at the behest of environmental groups seeking to require the board to directly regulate the dairy sector like it does other methane-producing industries, like landfills. It’s a two-year bill to allow for more discussion of the issue, a spokesperson for Allen said.

“No other industry is treated as if their pollution is naturally part of a baseline and then lavished with incentives to essentially stop polluting…That’s problematic,” James Duffy, a now-retired Air Resources Board transportation fuels branch chief told CalMatters. He has written letters in support of the demands by environmentalists to eliminate the credits.

“If you excessively reward an industry for poor historic environmental performance — that itself is troubling — but it also serves to distort the market against potentially more sustainable alternatives.”

Last month the air board held an eight-hour meeting with extensive public comments. At the end of that meeting, some board members were left grappling with the complexities of encouraging the development of a biogas market, if only to a point and temporarily. Other board members appeared determined to end the subsidies for dairy biogas.

“No other industry is treated as if their pollution is naturally part of a baseline and then lavished with incentives to essentially stop polluting… That’s problematic.”

James Duffy, former Air Resources Board branch chief

Gideon Kracov, a board member who represents the Los Angeles basin’s air quality board, said he supports the change, adding that California should not support any biofuels past 2040, because the fuels were meant to serve as a temporary solution.

“These are bridge fuels that we do not want in the transportation sector after 2040,” Kracov said.

An air board report indicated the dairy industry was on track to reduce methane emissions by the equivalent of 4.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, achieving those declines through the use of the state’s digesters and an expected decline in herds.

That’s well short of the 9 million that the industry needs to reach by 2030 to comply with California law. One option that many are banking on is approval of a feed additive by the Federal Drug Administration that will reduce so-called enteric emissions, which are cow burps and farts.

But Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University, said the board isn’t accurately measuring emissions because its estimates are based on herd surveys and projections and not actual measurements.

Wara told the board at an environmental justice meeting last month that California needs more exact data from farms if it is to accurately track progress toward a 40% methane emissions reduction target, as required by law.

“We believe that something substantially more accurate is required to know whether we are in compliance,” Wara said.

​ Orange County Register