NYS has enacted ambitious greenhouse gas reduction policies under the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, but they fall short in addressing the biggest source of methane – the waste sector.

Methane is a “climate super pollutant” whose environmental impact is 84-87 times greater than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, and rotting organic wastes generate nearly triple the methane (34%) than the State’s oil and gas industry does (12%). To stave off the worst effects of climate change, we must cut methane emissions significantly in the next few years – and that means turning the continuously generated streams of food waste, manure, wastewater, and landfill gas from liabilities into assets.

Fortunately, we know the path forward: converting that organic waste through AD into RNG. RNG is the lowest carbon fuel available and a proven commercial option today using existing technology. RNG is deeply carbon net negative when produced from food waste, manure, or wastewater, meaning that more greenhouse gases are captured during the fuel’s production than are released when it’s transported and consumed.

New York State currently has around 200 sites with operational anaerobic digesters, mostly using dairy manure, but it has vast potential for more from all sources of organic waste. With the right laws and regulations in place, Energy Vision has calculated that building ~20 new food waste digesters, ~20 digesters at wastewater plants, and ~260 dairy manure digesters would cut New York State’s methane emissions by 15%. Meeting that potential could equate to approximately 8,000 new jobs across the ~300 new projects and around $3.4 billion in capital deployed, a significant portion of which is expected to come from private capital markets and federal funding through the Inflation Reduction Act.

Only about a dozen of New York’s current AD sites upgrade the resultant raw biogas into RNG, although many more could viably do so. According to Energy Vision’s calculations, the State’s RNG capacity today is just over 5% of its achievable potential of 44.4 million MMBTU/year. That much RNG could replace approximately 320 million gallons of diesel, which is enough to power 32,000 refuse trucks per year – enough for more than 15x the number of garbage trucks in NYC or about one-sixth of refuse trucks nationwide.

And using RNG to displace diesel – the dirtiest, highest-carbon fuel now powering heavy-duty vehicles – means big decreases in two health-threatening air pollutants: a 90% drop in nitrogen oxides and a 60% drop in particulate matter. This would prevent a significant number of hospitalizations and premature deaths, especially in environmental justice communities like the South Bronx where diesel traffic is concentrated.

Implementing two critical policies (both complementary to the State’s upcoming Cap and Invest program) would accelerate the expansion of AD infrastructure and RNG use in NYS and all the associated benefits:

1. Lifecycle carbon accounting, which measures all greenhouse gases associated with a fuel or energy source, from production and transportation to end-use, rather than just the emissions from vehicle tailpipes and smokestacks in the State. It’s the gold standard used by the federal government and other states with ambitious climate laws.
2. A Clean Fuel Standard, a state-level program in which producers selling low carbon fuels in that state earn valuable credits that high carbon fuel producers must purchase. Virtually no government funds are spent on implementing these standards; instead, the high carbon fuel producers are actually paying for the expanded use of clean fuels. California, Oregon, and Washington now have Clean Fuel Standards and several other states are considering this proven approach.

As RNG scales up in NYS, it is also vital to monitor pipelines in real time and stop any methane leaks. For the sake of the climate, public health, and the economy, it’s time for the Empire State to put its organic waste to work.

As huge slabs of ice calve off of Arctic formations, as wildfires flare across Europe, in Hawaii, and across Canada, as floods ravage the Midwest, as hailstorms batter Texas, California – the list of climate extremes and natural disasters goes on and on. As this news pours out, many are either in denial or are throwing up their hands and feeling hopeless. But there is hope – and it’s within our power to make it real.

Because of the pressure of advocates and the ingenuity of visionary entrepreneurs, engineers, and businesses, many of the technologies enabling us to meet the climate challenge are here now. The question is: Will our human community rise to the occasion? Will we recognize that the blanket of heat-trapping greenhouse gases accumulating in our atmosphere, largely as a result of fossil fuel use, is destroying the environmental conditions that have made our planet a flourishing place for so many life forms? Will we commit to change and actually see it through?

At Energy Vision, we are proud to have identified and to be promoting one of the critical strategies available today. When you read in this issue of EV News about the anaerobic digester in Buffalo, New York which is capturing the methane biogases emitted by food wastes from farms, food processors, restaurants, and grocery stores so they don’t escape (and then refining them into a clean energy and fuel source), you are learning about a strategy that every city and community in this country can adopt. And these facilities are a great investment because once the infrastructure costs are covered, the organic wastes are a free local resource and one that will expand as the population grows.

The international scientific community has clearly articulated the reason why such facilities are crucial worldwide. It is because methane, one of the most powerful climate-warming gases – 84-87 times more potent than CO2 on a 20-year timeframe – must be cut 30% in just the next 7 years if we are to avoid “runaway climate change.” What’s that? As the oceans continue to warm they won’t be able to absorb as much carbon, and as our polar ice masses melt they release trapped methane and won’t reflect as much sunlight, all of which will accelerate climate change to disastrous levels.

The US goal is to cut our greenhouse gases 80% by 2050. But that long-term goal risks making us complacent. The world’s scientists have laid out the risks. We know there are strategies to adopt today and more will become available. The key is to act NOW. The public policies described for New York State in our lead article can spur that action. But those policies require citizens to voice their support and to speak out locally for strategic action and investments – in solar, wind, geothermal energy, etc. and in anaerobic digestors to turn our country’s organics from a climate liability to a climate asset.

What is needed is not a secret. Every anaerobic digester built, every solar panel installed, and every coal-fired power plant closed brings us closer to humanity’s shared goals – what the clean energy revolution is all about.

For more information on Energy Vision membership or physical copies of EVNews and other publications, contact: Michael Lerner, Dir. of Research & Publications | 138 E. 13th Street | NY, NY 10003 — Email: lerner@energy-vision.org

Presenters at the Metropolitan Hospital’s Environmental Justice Symposium pose on stage with the hospital’s Chief of Staff Natasha Burke, MPA (center) and Taina Traverso (far right), former chair of the hospital’s Community Advisory Board’s Environmental Justice Committee & founder of the Manhattan East Side Environmental Justice Consortium 

The Consortium was conceptualized and founded by Taina Traverso, a prominent figure in the East Harlem community, more than a year ago and later formalized in partnership with the Metropolitan Hospital, which hosted an environmental justice symposium on May 25^th. The symposium served as a hub for diverse stakeholders, spanning environmental organizations, environmental justice groups, academics, and representatives from the public sector. While their areas of focus varied widely, a common thread swiftly wove them together – the urgency to champion environmental justice in the heart of New York City. Traverso identified, engaged and recruited several of these stakeholders, including Energy Vision, to be a part of the consortium.

At the symposium, Energy Vision conducted a workshop on how the community can take advantage of the nutrient and energy value of the organic wastes now being disposed of as garbage. We offered a comprehensive urban farming and organic waste-to-energy project proposal that promises to put organic wastes to beneficial use, invigorate community participation, stimulate urban farming, facilitate skills training, and create jobs. One of the project’s key goals would be to significantly reduce truck traffic, as organic waste would be put to use onsite rather than hauled away. This would mean cleaner air for the community, which is the Consortium’s top priority and a vital goal for residents’ health and wellbeing.

A Dual Approach: Bottom-Up and Top-Down

EV’s approach to environmental justice is dual-pronged. We actively engage with policymakers and private sector entities to clarify the commercial and cost-effective options for the community to cut greenhouse gases, reduce truck traffic, and convert truck fleets off of highly polluting diesel fuel. We also recognize the importance of a bottom-up approach to decision-making – ultimately the communities most affected must make the changes that suit them best, based on their cultural values and unique needs.

This bottom-up approach encourages stronger participation in environmental decision-making processes. Initial reactions to our proposal have been very positive, and we look forward to working with community members and our Consortium partners to tailor the details to East Harlem’s specific needs.

The Road Ahead

The Manhattan East Side Environmental Justice Consortium’s next steps include mapping out how the group will function and assessing the existing programs of each member. At its December meeting, the goal is to agree on a firm plan for moving forward.

We encourage Energy Vision members who would like to learn more or may have ways of supporting this initiative to be in touch.

EV’s Joanna Underwood along with members of the Generate UpCycle team at its Buffalo AD facility. Elected officials and staff from western NY participated in the educational August tour.

In 1886, it was the first city in the US to have electric streetlights. The Hotel Buffalo was the first in the world to have a private bath in each hotel room. Buffalo has been called the City of Parks because it has a vast system of parks built by renowned landscape artist Frederick Law Olmsted. Buffalo is also the hometown of New York’s first woman governor, Kathy Hochul.

Buffalo now has another distinction: it is home to the first food waste digester in NYS, one of around 70 nationwide. This facility processes 45,000 tons of food waste a year from farms, food processors, restaurants, and grocery stores, turning it into two valuable products. One is a clean fuel, made from the methane-rich biogas emitted by the decomposing organic waste that now powers the plant as well as 900 homes and businesses. The other is soil amendments, made from the “digestate” left after gas capture, which enriches more than 1,000 acres of farmland.

Since NYS leaders need to see this technology and to understand the contribution it can make to the State’s future, Energy Vision hosted a tour of the Buffalo digester in September in partnership with Generate Upcycle, a business within Generate Capital that builds, owns, and operates anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities across North America and Europe. (Generate Upcycle bought this digester from Ohio developer Quasar and renovated it.) Energy Vision is also planning tours this fall of the Newtown Creek wastewater plant in Brooklyn and another Generate UpCycle facility in Auburn, NY.

New York State generates over 3 million tons of food waste a year, much of which now goes into landfills. But a law that came into effect at the start of 2022 now requires businesses and institutions that generate at least 2 tons of food scraps per week to donate the edible portion and send any remaining food waste to organics recycling facilities. The latter includes the Buffalo Digester and four other regional ADs that accept food scraps as well as 60 compost sites. The US has set a goal of redistributing the 50% of discarded food that is edible by 2030, with the first priority for human consumption and the second for animal feed.

But the other 50% need not be “waste” either. While New York State’s Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Law is a good start, if the State steps up its game to divert the edible half of all discarded food by 2030, it could beneficially process the other inedible half with ~20 new-build anaerobic digestors like the Buffalo Digester. These ADs alone could produce enough RNG to power over 20,000 New York homes or businesses that cannot be readily electrified, or enough vehicle fuel to displace 15 million gallons of high-carbon, health-damaging diesel in bus or truck fleets. And thousands of tons of high-quality soil amendments from digestate would be available to fortify the state’s agricultural lands.

ADs can be built on the small or large scale. With the launch of our new report, Putting New York’s Organic Waste to Work, we hope to see many more ADs in the coming years like the commendable Buffalo Digester.

Michael Lerner

Michael S. Lerner happily “returned home” to Energy Vision in April 2023 as Director of Research and Publications, after first interning with EV back in 2011-2012. He is a passionate environmentalist and outdoorsman who wants to make big, tangible strides in advancing the energy transition. Michael is a sharp writer and strategist with a career spanning journalism, the private sector, and the non-profit sector.

He holds a B.A. and M.A. in political science from NYU. As an Energy Vision intern, Michael worked directly with Joanna Underwood to co-author the 2012 report “The City of Surrey, BC: Setting the Pace for Sustainable Transportation,” about the first closed-loop system of residential organic waste to RNG for local refuse trucks implemented in a major city in North America. He subsequently served as an occasional editorial consultant for EV and a volunteer at several of the annual awards receptions (so you might recognize him!)

Michael began his career as a global business journalist at Blouin News, authoring over 400 articles and blog posts. He then spent six years as the senior editor at political risk consultancy Horizon Engage. In addition, as a contractor for the California Wilderness Coalition, he played an important role in four national monument campaigns, authoring entire portions of lengthy technical reports as well as concise narratives for the general public.

Michael enjoys writing, collaborating with others, and crafting strategy. He is an avid hiker who’s been to over 100 national parks worldwide. He’s also fluent in Spanish and has traveled extensively in Latin America. After relocating from New York City to the Bay Area in California in 2020, he and his wife Julia moved back this summer. They are the proud parents of a baby boy, born August 14th, 2023.

Cailean Press

Cailean Press comes to Energy Vision as a half-time Development Associate, with a background in writing, promotion, and filmmaking – where her goals have been to tell meaningful human stories and advance social change. She is an Emmy-nominated and multi-award-winning filmmaker, and her films have been seen at festivals including the Tribeca Film Festival, the Woodstock Festival, Cinequest, and the Montreal Just for Laughs Film Festival. She was selected by Glamour Magazine as a “top female director to watch.”

In a freelance capacity, she has managed social media accounts and worked on marketing campaigns for clients including Ronnybrook Farm Dairy, Stoutridge Vineyards, the United Way of Dutchess County, and Primrose Hill Schools. She also served as head researcher and writer for an immigration law firm, generating reports in support of asylum seekers and others applying for immigration status.

Cailean’s early roots as an actress and comedian led to her later work teaching improvisation to children and teenagers with a focus on encouraging creativity, self-confidence, cooperation, and empathy. Through her work with young people and improvisation, Cailean developed a curriculum aimed at teaching teenagers about social entrepreneurship and helping them create their own positive change-making business ideas. Her curriculum was adopted by Girls, Inc. of New York City. Cailean currently lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband and three daughters.