By Kimberly Miller, The Palm Beach Post
A California company has arrived in Florida for a kind of reverse gold rush, but it’s not seeking precious metal — it wants manure.
Brightmark Energy out of San Francisco is one of multiple firms soliciting Florida dairy farmers to turn their cow poop lagoons into money-making biogas machines as carbon emission standards tighten to mitigate climate change.
Federal renewable energy policy as well as California law allows fuel companies to reduce their pollution debt by purchasing credits from entities overachieving in carbon reduction efforts.
Improved technology that can spin cow excrement into renewable natural gas in addition to the burgeoning carbon credit market is attracting pioneers — called developers — that build the projects, pay for the manure, then reap the benefits of selling Earth-friendly fuel and credits.