Manure Management for Climate Change Mitigation: Regulating CAFO Greenhouse Gas Emissions Under the Clean Air Act

Climate change is the defining challenge of our time, which if unbridled, will imperil our communities and the viability of future generations. Efforts to reduce global temperature rise require more than merely reforming carbon dioxide emissions from the energy and transportation sectors. Notably, climate solutions cannot be reached without simultaneously addressing the more potent methane and nitrous oxide gases. In the United States, intensive factory farms, legally known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (“CAFOs”), are responsible for large emissions of these two greenhouse gases due to manure mismanagement. While there are no federal environmental regulations in place for mitigating CAFOs’ climate effects, existing greenhouse gas frameworks within the Clean Air Act may provide a solution. This Note analyzes Clean Air Act provisions that allow methane and nitrous oxide regulation and assesses the viability of applying these statute sections to CAFOs in order to curb emissions from the livestock sector and mitigate climate impacts