BOISE, Idaho -- Idaho is hoping to capitalize on more than just the milk emerging from its cows. The state's mountains of manure are fueling dreams of pipelines linking waste treatment facilities at dairies large and small to central refineries that produce natural gas pure enough for homes or cars.
BOISE, Idaho -- Idaho is hoping to capitalize on more than just the milk emerging from its cows.
The state's mountains of manure are fueling dreams of pipelines linking waste treatment facilities at dairies large and small to central refineries that produce natural gas pure enough for homes or cars.
State energy czar Paul Kjellander, who heads up Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter's Office of Energy Resources, is pushing a package of income tax credits, property tax waivers and other incentives in the 2009 Legislature starting Jan. 12 to transform Idaho's southern heartland into a methane Mecca.
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The hope is that processed manure could be sold as plant bedding and dairies could also fire turbines, shooting electricity into the power grid. And they could sell carbon credits in schemes to slash greenhouse gas emissions.
"We can put together the right package and right mechanism to help move it along," Kjellander told The Associated Press. "You've got to have somebody locally who is ready to take the risk and move this forward. But the state can provide the right type of incentives."
Idaho, with 550,000 cows, is now America's No. 3 milk producer, trailing California and Wisconsin. Other states are also trying to whet potential manure investors' appetites.
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