Environmental, Agriculture, and Community Groups Applaud Extended Pause of Manure Digester Federal Funding

REAP was created to help farmers and rural small businesses cut energy costs and strengthen local economies; yet hundreds of millions of tax dollars have been funneled into expensive, polluting manure digesters

WASHINGTON– The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service announced it will extend its pause on loan guarantees for new anaerobic digester projects across its funding programs, including the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). 

The decision to extend the pause from April 14 through Dec 31, 2026 reflects growing concern about the economic viability of manure-based digesters. Federal data show high rates of loan delinquency and project underperformance, which reinforces what advocates have long argued: anaerobic digesters are extremely expensive projects that primarily benefit large-scale industrial livestock operations and fail to deliver meaningful environmental or community benefits.

As USDA reviews the program, the groups urge the agency to make anaerobic digesters that are located at industrial livestock operations or use livestock manure permanently ineligible for grants and loans under REAP. Instead, USDA should ensure these limited federal funds continue to go toward solutions that actually improve rural communities, including truly renewable energy. 

In January, Earthjustice and Friends of the Earth U.S., along with a coalition of more than 30 organizations, filed a rulemaking petition urging the USDA to deem anaerobic digesters ineligible for grants and loans under REAP. The petition argues that these digester projects undermine the goals of REAP by directing hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to large, industrial livestock operations while worsening pollution, driving consolidation, and delivering far less energy per dollar than truly clean alternatives such as solar or wind projects. 

At the same time, Earthjustice filed a lawsuit on behalf of petitioner Friends of the Earth, challenging USDA’s violation of the federal Freedom of Information Act for illegally withholding public records that detail the agency’s decisions to fund manure digesters using REAP dollars.

Quotes

“This pause is a necessary and overdue step,” said Molly Armus, Animal Agriculture Policy Program Manager at Friends of the Earth. “For years, federal dollars have propped up costly manure digester projects that entrench factory farming, worsen local pollution, and too often fail financially. USDA has a real opportunity to course-correct by ending REAP support for factory farm gas once and for all.” 

“USDA’s latest extension of its pause on loan guarantees for manure digesters recognizes what the petitioners and others have made clear: manure digesters are a losing investment,” said Kara Goad, Senior Associate Attorney at Earthjustice.  “USDA should end its support for manure digesters and, in doing so, free up funds for projects that benefit small farms, rural communities, the environment, and taxpayers.”

Food & Water Watch Senior Attorney Tyler Lobdell said: “Finally, USDA appears to be realizing what advocates and communities on the frontlines of factory farm pollution have known for years: Factory farm biogas is now and has always been a dangerous waste of money. Factory farm digesters are a boondoggle both financially and in terms of climate mitigation. Taxpayer support for these projects should end entirely and for good.”

“These enormously expensive projects are not economically viable without significant government support, an alarm bell that they are a risky investment,” said Ben Lilliston, Director of Rural Strategies at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. “USDA can better support family farmers and rural communities through smart investments in appropriately scaled wind and solar projects that improve on-farm resilience, particularly as fuel prices rise.” 

Read the full January 2026 petition.

Read the January 2026 complaint.

Media contact: Lindsay Tice, [email protected]