The greenwashing of cow poop harvesting. Should BMW be involved?
You read that right. Poop. Manure. Cow pies. US Dairy farming remains a massive contributor of greenhouse gas methane emitted by its endless lanes of cattle providing milk to the public. California in particular currently sits at as the US dairy farming mecca, but also accounts for nearly half of the methane emissions in the entire state. New recycling methods have been put into place and automakers like BMW have utilized their carbon offsets to power its EVs, but many argue this is greenwashing and the entire incentive program encourages more emissions, not less.
Over the past decade, biogas energy derived from animal waste has become a widely popular option for dairy farmers as an additional income stabilizer. Energy gathered using methane digesters has led to automakers like BMW using those offsets to charge its electric vehicles with less guilt on its conscience, but analysts have cried “greenwashing” as these methods not only produce the same environmental impact as fossil fuels, but also encourage dairy farms in the United States to increase emissions.
In 2011, California began an incentive program called the low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) which rewards dairy farmers for converting their methane into energy that can then be sold to other companies, like automakers for example, as offset credits. The concept of offsets is an entirely different debate we will save for another day, but in spirit, this idea sounds beneficial although we’d argue a complete focus on natural resources like wind and solar prove better in the long run.
In fact, several scientists and environmental advocates agree as much. A January 2022 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists relayed the following as it pertains to manure biomethane analysis:
We recognize that the capture and productive use of waste biomethane generated by anaerobic digestion (AD) from manure lagoons is a useful mechanism to mitigate methane pollution and can also replace a small amount of fossil methane use in energy and industrial applications.
However, the system remains flawed and so does its priorities. The experts argue that the LCFS in particular awards credits to farmers at a much higher magnitude than the cost to operate and maintain a methane digester. The aforementioned study goes on to say it believes the value of LCFS credits for large, confined animal feeding operations (CAFO) like California’s dairy farms, massively exceeds the costs of recovering the biomethane itself.
Furthermore, the biomethane energy still burns the same as fossil fuels, despite being marketed as a clean alternative. This is where the topic of greenwashing comes into play, but how exactly is BMW involved in a biogas industry projected to more than double globally to $126.2 billion by 2030? Like many things dairy related, it starts in California.
BMW’s biomethane energy offsets border greenwashing
In April of 2021, BMW Group announced a new venture as the first automaker to begin collaborating with dairy farms in California to offset the charging carbon emissions from its EVs. At the time, BMW relayed that credits through the LCFS enable charging incentives for drivers participating in its ChargeForward program that began around the same time.
These collaborations included Straus Organic Dairy Farm and CalBio who builds the methane digestors farms use. BMW North America’s energy services Manager, connected eMobility Adam Langton spoke at the time:
Our sustainability mission isn’t simply about reducing carbon emissions but making sustainability practices financially attractive for the long-run, so that these practices can expand and help our partners thrive. Dairy biodigesters are an example of an energy technology that not only reduces carbon emissions in a sustainable way but also offers a new revenue stream to farmers and their communities. In the future, we hope to use this collaborative model we have created in California to support more biodigester development in the US and ultimately bring more clean energy sources to our customers.
Third-generation farmer and owner of Bar 20 Dairy Steve Shehadey shared a similar sentiment in the video you can view below, explaining that no matter your farm’s dairy output, farmers have no control over the fluctuating prices of milk:
There’s times when you’re making money, there’s times when you’re losing money. And so, the concept of being able to produce energy or power was attractive because, if you can stabilize some income, it helps to you get you through the tough times.
According to Shehadey, Bar 20’s two solar projects and the methane digester produce an excess of 3 million kWh of power more than what the dairy farm needs to operate. The implementation of renewables like solar on farms is commendable, and capturing methane to recycle is a better option than letting it simply enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
However, there is greenwashing at play here no matter how BMW or anyone else tries to spin it, as these recycled gases are still emitting hefty carbon emissions and are empowered by an incentive program that rewards farms for the more stinky gas they produce.
A 2022 article by the Guardian points to the same research by the Union of Concerned Scientists, arguing that the environmental benefits of biogases are immensely exaggerated and the LCFS prioritizes farm gas (a combustion-based source of energy) over other renewables like solar and wind.
According to a 2018 analysis by researchers at UC Davis, methane digesters are likely not profitable without the government grants and subsidies, finding it costs $294 a year to produce $68 of gas from one cow, not including the massive upfront cost of installing the digester itself.
This is where it gets interesting.
According to a 2021 analysis by Aaron Smith, professor of agricultural economics at UC Davis, LCFS credits generate a subsidy of $1,935 a year per cow. If dairy farmer’s needed a reason to start recycling cow poop, that’s a pretty lucrative one, especially in a fluid pricing market for dairy – having a financial contingency for selling excess energy feels like a no brainer for farmers, especially those with large operations.
A main argument by the Union of Concerned Scientists is that subsidies in the LCFS vastly eclipse the cost of producing the methane gas, disproportionally benefiting the largest and most pollutive dairy farms. One an even more disheartening note, these incentives threaten dairy industry consolidation, where the largest farms get bigger, and the smaller ones can no longer compete. Not to mention that dollar signs attached to biogas production could sway farmers away from cleaner sources of renewable energy, again such as wind and solar. Per its study:
The LCFS is structured to require producers of polluting transportation fuels to bear the costs of mitigating transportation fuel pollution. However, in the case of the manure biomethane, the majority of the climate pollution at stake is methane from manure, and the fossil methane displacement in the transportation fuel market is a relatively small contribution. Thus, in this instance the largest polluter is the one receiving a large subsidy.
The lifecycle basis of the LCFS is supposed to ensure that support for low carbon fuels is based on a comprehensive assessment of their climate benefits. However, in this instance, this structure is functioning as poorly designed offset program with transportation fuel users paying an extremely high price for manure methane mitigation. This is not good transportation fuel policy or good agricultural methane mitigation policy.
It’s completely understandable why California dairy farmers who participate in methane biofuel production thanks to the current subsidies in place to their benefit. It’s truly doubtful that there is ill intent toward the environment in this process, as it does provide a partial solution to a serious emissions problem in the state. However, its benefits are highly exaggerated to the point of greenwashing, so it’s tough to give companies like BMW a pat on the back for their collaborations in the venture.
There are certainly cleaner ways to power EVs, especially without carbon offsets.
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![At $28,000 off, is the Jeep Wagoneer S the best EV deal going? [update]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/06/jeep_wagoneer_deals.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
Like a 90s “gifted” kid that was supposed to be a lot of things, the electric Jeep Wagoneer S never really found its place — but when dealers started discounting the Jeep brands forward-looking flagship by nearly $25,000 back in June, I wrote that it might be time to give the go-fast Wagoneer S a second look.
This month, the discounts are even better.
UPDATE 23AUG25: I found you some even better EV deals!
Whether we’re talking about Mercedes-Benz, Cerberus, Fiat, or even Enzo Ferrari, outsiders have labeled Jeep as a potentially premium brand that could, “if managed properly,” command luxury-level prices all over the globe. That hasn’t happened, and Stellantis is just the latest in a long line of companies to sink massive capital into the brand only to realize that people will not, in fact, spend Mercedes money on a Jeep.
That said, the Jeep Wagoneer S is not a bad car (and neither is its totally different, hideously massive, ICE-powered Wagoneer sibling, frankly). Built on the same Stellantis STLA Large vehicle platform that underpins the sporty Charger Daytona EVs, the confusingly-named Wagoneer S packs dual electric motors putting out almost 600 hp. That’s good enough to scoot the ‘ute 0 to 60 mph in a stomach-turning 3.5 seconds and enough, on paper, to convince Stellantis executives that they had developed a real, market-ready alternative to the Tesla Model Y.
With the wrong name and a sky-high starting price of $66,995 (not including the $1,795 destination fee), however, that demand didn’t materialize, leaving the Wagoneer S languishing on dealer lots across the country.
That could be about to change, however, thanks to big discounts on Wagoneer S being reported at CDJR dealers in several states:
- Jeff Belzer’s in Minnesota has a 2025 Wagoneer S Limited with a $67,790 MSRP for $39,758 ($28,032 off)
- Troncalli CDJR in Georgia has a 2025 Wagoneer S Limited with a $67,590 MSRP for $42,697 ($24,893 off)
- Whitewater CDJR in Minnesota has a 2025 Wagoneer S Limited with a $67,790 MSRP for $43,846 ($23,944 off)
- Antioch CDJR in Illinois has a 2025 Wagoneer S Limited with a $67,790 MSRP for $44,540 ($23,250 off)
“Stellantis bet big on electric versions of iconic American brands like Jeep and Dodge, but consumers aren’t buying the premise,” writes CDG’s Marcus Amick. “(Stellantis’ dealer body) is now stuck with expensive EVs that need huge discounts to move, eating into already thin margins while competitors focus on [more] profitable gas-powered vehicles.”
All of which is to say: if you’ve found yourself drawn to the Jeep Wagoneer S, but couldn’t quite stomach the $70,000+ window stickers, you might want to check in with your local Jeep dealer and see how you feel about it at a JCPenneys-like 30% off!
Jeep Wagoneer S gallery
Original content from Electrek; images via Stellantis.
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Multinational equipment brand SANY just launched a clever new 50-ton reach stacker that pairs gravity and an F1-style KERS system to generate electricity, improve operating efficiency, and reduce costs. The best part: they’re putting that smart tech to work by helping clean up (and shore up) the grid.
Short for Kinetic Energy Recovery System, KERS was a staple of Formula 1 in the late aught and 2010s. Essentially an advanced form of regenerative braking, KERS captured the kinetic energy of a car at speed that would normally be lost as heat when the brake pads pressed against the brake discs. Instead of heat, KERS converted that energy into electricity (storing it in a battery or flywheel), to be deployed later.
Sebastian Vettel explains KERS
In practice, KERS gave drivers an extra boost of horsepower at the push of a button, enabling them to attack or defend their position on track and adding a fresh strategic element to the sport. In SANY’s case, that stored power is fed back into the reach stacker’s electric hydraulic system, reducing pressure loss across the high-pressure setup by 50%, and lowering the machine’s overall energy consumption by more than 60%.
Energy recovery is a key feature. The potential energy of the boom, lifting gear and energy storage cabinets during the boom’s descent can be recovered efficiently with an overall recovery efficiency of over 65%. That means every 1 kWh of consumption in lifting can be recovered by 0.4 kWh during descent.
The 50t reach stacker is available with a 512 kWh swappable battery pack that’s compatible with other SANY heavy equipment assets, and supports both DC fast charging when swapping isn’t practical or (for whatever reason) desirable.
On a single charge and backed by the onboard KERS, that’s good enough for the machine can lift and move containers for more than 7 continuous hours, which SANY claims significantly reducing downtime for charging compared to other, similar equipment assets.
The new SANY reach stacker can stack six 50-ton containers, greatly enhancing a site’s container and battery storage density within a limited space. The first units will reach unnamed customers building out a utility-scale energy storage project by the end of this month.
Electrek’s Take
All the great stuff I was saying about the new 65-tonne XCMG still holds true for the SANY (especially when they take the wraps off their own 65t BESS-specific unit later this year), but the SANY adds smart battery swap tech and what seems to be more efficient operations, too.
Regardless of which one you choose, it seems like the available options for reach stacker operators are just getting better and better!
SOURCE | IMAGES: SANY.
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EVs are great, and can unlock more transportation convenience with the ease of charging at home. But for apartment-dwellers, this can be a complicated conversation. So a nonprofit called Forth is here to help, through its Charge at Home program.
One of the main benefits of an electric vehicle is in the convenience of owning and charging the car in the place it spends most of its time. Instead of having to go out of your way to fuel it, you just park it at home, in the same place it spends at least 8 hours a day, and you leave the house every day with a full charge.
But this benefit only applies to those with a consistent parking space which they can easily install charging at. When talking about owners who live in apartment buildings, it can sometimes get more complicated.
While certain states have passed “right to charge” laws to give apartment-dwellers a solution for home charging, apartment charging is nevertheless a bit of a patchwork solution so far.
And as a result of this, EV ownership among apartment renters lags behind that of single-family homeowners. It’s clear that apartments are holding back people from buying EVs, and that’s bad – lots of people live in apartments, and the gas those cars use pollutes the air just as much as any other.
Certain areas where EVs have hit a point of critical mass (namely, the large California cities) have pretty good EV ownership among renters, but it could still be better. And residents are clamoring more and more for easy EV charging in apartment communities.
So, Forth, a nonprofit advocating for equitable access to clean transportation, set up a program called Charge at Home, which is meant to connect renters, apartment building owners or other decisionmakers with resources to help install chargers at multifamily properties.
The site lets you select your situation – a resident or a decisionmaker for a new or existing multifamily development – and then gives you access to tools for your specific situation, whether you be a resident and developer.
The site houses links to help design a multifamily project, find electricians, inform you about right to charge laws or available incentives, and provide case studies, among others.
Charge at Home also hosts roundtable webinars periodically, and includes a library of past webinars with the information you need.
There are a lot of considerations for each of these projects, so it can be helpful to have someone with experience to help you go over it all. Personally, when talking to friends about getting an EV, charging considerations are usually the thing that takes up the bulk of the conversation.
So if the toolkits are still too daunting for you, Charge at Home is offering free charging consultations for multifamily developers, owners, property managers and HOAs.
The charging consultations have been made possible by funding from the Department of Energy, though that funding only runs through the end of September – so get your requests in soon. Forth may still offer consultations afterwards, but is still uncertain about funding so doesn’t want to promise anything – but the website will remain up for people to submit questions and find information, whether or not free consultations stick around.
But at the very least, as Forth points out, whether a multifamily development is interested in having EV charging at this moment or not, any developer should think about having the infrastructure, conduit and capacity ready to go for future install of EV chargers, and should consider the needs of current residents who are likely already considering EVs today.
It’s going to be necessary to install this capacity at some point, and doing so earlier can help save money down the line, make your development more attractive to renters today, and allow more renters to make the switch to cleaner transportation which helps air quality and to reduce climate change, both of which harm everyone on the planet.
Electrek’s Take
I’ve long said that the only real problem with EVs is the problem of access to consistent charging for people who don’t have their own garage. Whether this be apartment-dwellers, street-parkers or the like, the electric car charging experience is often less-than-ideal outside of single family homes, at least in North America.
There are workarounds available, like charging at work, or using Superchargers in “third places” where you often spend time, but these still aren’t optimal. The best thing is just to charge your car wherever it spends most of its time, which is your home. When you do that, EVs outshine everything in convenience.
We’ve highlighted some projects before which showed how reasonable it can be to install charging for developments. Every project is going to have its complexities, but when you see projects like this condo complex that managed to install chargers for just $405 per parking spot, all of a sudden it becomes a no-brainer not to have EV charging.
But the fact is, there just aren’t enough apartment complexes out there which have EV charging. So if Forth’s program can help residents or landlords with that, it can go a long way towards solving the only real problem with EVs.
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