Stop dirty energy from powering electric vehicles!

Big Polluters are lobbying the EPA to power electric vehicles using electricity produced from methane biogas sources like factory farms. Communities can’t afford more factory farms poisoning their air and water. Our planet can’t afford EVs powered by dirty energy.

If Big Polluters get their way, electric vehicles will worsen pollution instead of fighting it. Methane gas is 80x worse for the climate than CO2. We should be aggressively reducing our reliance on methane, not incentivizing factory farms to make more!

There’s no time to waste – the EPA is trying to quietly move forward with this disastrous proposal right now! Don’t let Big Polluters prop up factory farms that fuel the climate crisis and pollute communities.

Comments

Dear Administrator Regan,

I write to you deeply concerned that the EPA could soon qualify electricity from methane biogas from factory farms and landfills, with potential future inclusion of woody biomass, as a source of “renewable fuel” for electric vehicles. This would be harmful to both communities and the climate. EVs are only as clean as the electricity used to charge them, and dirty methane biogas linked to unsustainable confined animal feeding operations (CAFO) is far from the clean and renewable electricity we need to build out EV charging infrastructure. Factory farm gas relies on the unsustainable CAFO system, polluting our soil and water. Monetizing methane biogas as a coproduct creates a perverse incentive to produce more and undermines sustainability efforts. As the sources of methane biogas are disproportionately sited in low income and BIPOC communities, the health burdens from exposure to factory farms’ toxic pollutants embeds environmental injustices.

You began your tenure at the EPA publicly committing to Environmental Justice and promising to redress the legacy of environmental harm to low-income and Black, Indigenous, Latino, and other communities of color. Utilizing the cellulosic mandate of the Renewable Fuel Standard as a backdoor giveaway for dirty energy is inconsistent with this commitment. Electric vehicles are meant to be a pathway to free our transportation sector from reliance on fossil fuels. But a new future for electric vehicles cannot come at the expense of vulnerable communities who are already overburdened by pollution. Your commitment to centering Environmental Justice begins to ring hollow when the EPA is preparing to double down on RFS failures by expanding the mandate to electricity from harmful biogas.

Impacted frontline communities already bear the disproportionate brunt of harm from the processing and burning of woody biomass, factory farm gas, and landfill gas. Allowing these practices to earn compliance credits under the Renewable Fuel Standard will exacerbate harm and cumulative impacts in these communities, regardless of whether the profits from these credits flow to utilities, charging stations, car companies, or individual drivers.

For over a decade the Renewable Fuel Standard has failed to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change while driving air and water pollution through industrial farming practices. The EPA should not make a bad problem worse by pretending that dirty electricity is renewable fuel.

Sincerely,
{user_data~First name} {user_data~Last name}
{user_data~City}, {user_data~State} {user_data~Postcode}

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