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Thursday, February 27, 2025

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Trump memo tells federal agencies how to conduct mass layoffs; Latinos in NM, nation urged to boycott national retailers over DEI curbs; Advocates await impacts of industrial sludge law a year later; Hearing today in CA on lawsuit to halt firings of federal workers; Push grows to save Dolly Parton's book program in Indiana.

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The House has passed a budget outline. Elon Musk attends first Trump cabinet meeting. And federal workers leave jobs despite litigation allowing them to stay.

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U.S. farmers in limbo due to federal funding freeze worry their projects will go unrealized, mass firings could wreak havoc on tourists visiting public lands this summer, while money to fight wildfires in rural areas is also jeopardized.

MI farms making manure matter by turning it into clean energy

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Monday, December 16, 2024   

From cow waste to clean energy, Michigan will soon have a couple of new state-backed digesters to get the job done.

Last Tuesday, the Michigan Strategic Fund approved Freehold Energy RNG to pursue a tax-exempt bond for its project.

The company plans to build facilities in St. Joseph and Muskegon counties to produce renewable natural gas from dairy waste.

The estimated cost for the project is between $75 to $80 million of local investment. Freehold's Principal Project Developer CW Alexander shared the environmental benefits of the initiative.

"It equates to about 4.3 million gallons of gasoline equivalent per year, which equates to about 90,000 metric tons of CO2 reduction," said Alexander, "or about equivalent of 20,000 cars removed off the road."

Construction is expected to begin next year - with the facilities becoming operational in 2026.

Digesters can range from small systems for single farms to large facilities handling waste from thousands of cows - producing biogas and nutrient-rich fertilizers as byproducts.

Alexander highlighted additional benefits, such as odor reduction around farms. He also said his company plans to repurpose excess sand used by farmers for cow bedding.

"With the benefit of that is it improves agricultural land quality, because you're not moving sand onto the fields," said Alexander. "It's now just the manure as fertilizer, once processed, is going onto the fields. So that's a pretty significant benefit to the land quality over the long term."

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's MI Healthy Climate Plan aims for Michigan to achieve 100% clean energy by 2040, and carbon neutrality by 2050.






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