As the earth warms, Midwest searches to cut greenhouse gas

The American Midwest is at a turning point as it confronts the global climate crisis. It’s a landscape of opportunity, where investment is starting to pour into renewable energy, farmers are turning to climate-friendly practices, and automakers are introducing new electric vehicles. But its path forward is still cluttered with obstacles...

...But in Wisconsin, the heart of Midwestern dairy country, Jennifer Lu of the La Crosse Tribune found farmers wary of adopting one of the most effective methods of reducing emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas: building digesters to capture methane from manure. The methane can be used to generate electricity—but it’s expensive, and it’s hard to break even....

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Ken Notes: It is difficult, we need partners to work with farms to get this done. The other problem is that we have made the spreading of liquid manure low cost, this should not be the case. We require factories to clean up after themselves, we mandate that communities treat their waste, we control emissions from utilities....