GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

Status

Accepted

Abstract

Industrial animal agriculture pitches biogas and methane digesters as solutions to the outsized methane footprint of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), yet these efforts merely seek to convey to the public that CAFOs’ operations are environmentally responsible. In reality, quite the opposite is true because biogas and methane digesters more deeply entrench these facilities into the status quo of unsustainable production and disposal methods at CAFOs. This article first describes industrial animal agriculture’s impacts on climate change, with a focus on methane emissions. It then addresses biogas and methane digesters as ineffective solutions to the methane emissions from CAFOs. Next, it examines how these misleading and inadequate responses in the industrial animal agriculture context parallel the fossil fuel industry’s greenwashing campaigns with blue hydrogen and carbon capture and storage facilities. The article proposes long-term and short-term accountability mechanisms to promote the phaseout of biogas and methane digesters in CAFOs. Effective long-term measures would involve implementing disclosure and verification standards much like those that are starting to be implemented in the fossil fuel industry context. These legislative efforts take time, however, and have not yet been implemented in the United States. In the meantime, an effective short-term response would be to pursue strategic litigation to raise awareness of and apply pressure to phase out these harmful measures by drawing on best practices from greenwashing lawsuits in the fossil fuel context.

GW Paper Series

2025-03

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