Clean Energy Fuels Starts Up New RNG Plant in Idaho

Clean Energy Fuels Corp said Thursday it had begun production at its eighth renewable natural gas (RNG) facility, "one of the largest single-site dairies and RNG facilities in North America".

The East Valley Cattle project in Jerome, Idaho "has now begun producing and injecting negative carbon-intensity RNG into the interstate pipeline which will be used as clean fuel for transportation fleets across the country", Newport Beach, California-based Clean Energy said in a press release.

The plant, built on a site with over 35,000 cows, has a capacity to process more than 5 million gallons a day of manure using a wastewater treatment system and advanced manure separation technology. "This unique approach ensures maximum efficiency and sustainability for a dairy of this size before moving to the anaerobic digestion process which produces clean, pipeline-quality RNG", Clean Energy said. "The byproducts are then reused onsite to support farm operations, providing bedding for livestock and crop fertilizer".

East Valley Cattle has 6 anaerobic digesters to capture methane from the manure, preventing it from entering the atmosphere, Clean Energy said.

Will Flanagan, vice president of strategic development at Clean Energy, said, "This is probably the most ambitious project we've taken on - the scale, the technology, and the integration of systems are unmatched and quite frankly, extremely impressive".

Clean Energy's joint venture with BP PLC, CE bp Renew Co, financed the project.

"In the first quarter of 2026, the East Valley Dairy project recognized its first revenue, and the RNG produced received full approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to begin generating Renewable Identification Numbers under the Renewable Fuel Standard program and from the California Air Resources Board to generate California Low Carbon Fuel Standard credits", Clean Energy added.

"Agriculture accounts for nearly 10 percent of U.S. GHG emissions and the transportation sector accounts for another 28 percent, according to the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency]. Capturing methane from farm waste lowers these emissions. RNG, produced by that captured methane and used as a transportation fuel, significantly lowers GHG emissions on a lifecycle basis when compared to diesel. This allows RNG to be one of the only fuels to receive a negative carbon-intensity score based on the reduction of emissions at the source and at the vehicle and costs significantly less than diesel at the pump".

Recently Clean Energy expanded its RNG refueling network with 6 stations in California, Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Washington.

"These new and existing stations further strengthen Clean Energy's extensive network of over 600 fueling locations across North America serving transit, refuse, municipality, airport operations, and trucking fleets", Clean Energy said in a news release May 4. "The six recently opened stations are located near distribution centers and provide easy access points to major corridors".

"These station openings also support the accelerating adoption of Cummins' X15N 15-liter natural gas engine, a gamechanger in engine technology which allows long-haul and heavy-duty fleets to run smoothly, efficiently, and reliably on RNG", Clean Energy said.

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