Farmers support the proposal which is included in U.S. President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better spending bill.
Environmentalists worry that it will encourage large-scale dairy farmers to expand so they can market methane.
“If you start making money off of pollution, you’re not going to stop polluting,” said Rebecca Wolf, policy analyst at environmental group Food & Water Watch.
Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, told Reuters news agency that money in the plan should instead be “targeted to family farmers for soil health and regenerative agriculture practices,” such as planting cover crops and employing no-till farming.
Livestock methane pollution accounts for more than a third of U.S methane emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Digesters are mainly found at dairies because milking cows produce more manure than beef cattle.
The spending plan would make digester owners eligible for a 30 per cent tax credit and put billions of dollars into U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs that could help digester companies offset their costs.
