The California Air Resources Board (CARB or Board) invites interested parties to join a public workshop to learn about CARB's progress in compiling California-specific dairy activity data and evaluating the dairy sector emissions trends. Attendees will also hear from a diverse set of stakeholders, including people who live and work near dairy operations and members of the dairy industry. We welcome your feedback and engagement. A quorum of CARB Board members may also be present at the workshop, but this workshop will not have Board discussion items, and no Board action will occur. Here are further details:

Date:                                       August 22, 2024
Time:                                      10:00 a.m.
In-Person Location:         San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District
                                                  Central Region Office, Governing Board Room
                                                  1990 E. Gettysburg Avenue, Fresno, CA
Remote Option:                 Zoom

The meeting presentation will be translated into Spanish, and Spanish interpretation will be provided during the workshop.

Staff request written feedback following the workshop through 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on October 22, 2024.

Background

Senate Bill (SB) 1383 (Lara, Chapter 395, Statutes of 2016) established methane emissions targets, including a reduction in statewide methane emissions of 40 percent below 2013 levels by 2030 and an equivalent methane emissions reduction target for the dairy and livestock sector (2030 target). Methane is a powerful Greenhouse Gas (GHG) whose emissions are responsible for about 20 percent of global warming.

Community advocates and residents have raised concerns about the impacts of dairies and dairy digesters on adjacent communities through both public comments and through rulemaking petitions submitted to CARB. In CARB's most recent petition response, CARB staff committed to continuing to evaluate the dairy sector based on the best available data and to host this workshop on dairy sector data. To better understand these concerns and emissions trends in the State's dairy sector, CARB staff utilized data sources from Federal, State, and Local agencies to develop the California Dairy and Livestock Database (CADD). The database contains facility-level cattle population and digester information for California dairies from 2012 to 2022. CADD is based on publicly accessible documents and improves CARB's ability to track the California dairy and livestock sector trends.

The staff presentation will include a detailed overview of CADD's development and data content as well as evaluations of general trends in the dairy sector.

The workshop materials will be posted on the workshop webpage as they become available. If you have questions about the workshop, please contact CADD@arb.ca.gov.