Manure-to-Energy Digesters Were Sold as a Climate Fix. Now the USDA Is Hitting Pause.

Manure-to-Energy Digesters Were Sold as a Climate Fix. Now the USDA Is Hitting Pause.

On January 14, the United States Department of Agriculture hit pause for 90 days on a program that has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars toward on-farm anaerobic digester projects. The agency announced an administrative pause on loans for these projects, which turn animal waste, often from factory farms, into biogas for energy.In a letter announcing the pause, Rural Business Cooperative Service Administrator J.R. Claeys wrote that almost…