Milking It
How Big Ag Has Avoided Reporting the Largest Source of Methane Emissions in the Nation
A Texas Dairy Ranks Among the State’s Biggest Methane Emitters. But Don’t Ask the EPA or the State About It.
An analysis by Inside Climate News, building on work by Climate TRACE, shows that tracking cattle emissions, site by site, is doable. But government databases specifically exempt agricultural operations from their greenhouse gas accounting.
By Phil McKenna, Georgina Gustin, Peter Aldhous
![Covered manure lagoons or dairy digesters capture methane emissions as cow manure decomposes. The black plastic tarps at the North Dumas Farms appear to be collecting biogas as of November, 2022, but it remains unclear if the gas is being flared or injected into a gas pipeline for use as fuel. Credit: Google Earth](png/texas-cow-methane_n-dumas-dairy-digesters_mckenna-900x600.png)