Aemetis, Inc. announced that the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors, upon a 4 to 0 vote, approved the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) analysis for Aemetis Biogas LLC to extend its biogas pipeline by an additional 24 miles using the public right of way. The pipeline transports biogas from dairy digesters to a centralized renewable natural gas (RNG) upgrading facility located at the Aemetis Keyes biofuels plant. The pipeline extension will enable Aemetis to add 21 additional dairies to the Aemetis Biogas project in Stanislaus and Merced Counties.

The capture of methane at dairies and conversion into below zero carbon intensity renewable fuel to replace diesel for heavy trucks provides immediate benefits, improving regional air quality, reducing methane and carbon emissions, and providing a lower cost renewable fuel for heavy trucking. Aemetis plans to increase its renewable natural gas production to more than 1.65 million MMBtu per year of negative carbon intensity transportation fuel, sourced from dairy digesters located in the San Joaquin Valley, a region cited by the US EPA as having some of the nation's worst air quality. The project is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to an estimated 6.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over ten years, equal to removing the emissions from approximately 150,000 cars per year.

Aemetis has received permits, completed engineering, fabricated equipment, and is now installing an RNG fueling station at the Keyes ethanol plant to fuel trucks with locally produced renewable natural gas that provides a 90% reduction in emissions compared to petroleum diesel fuel, at a significantly lower cost than diesel. The Aemetis Biogas dairy RNG project, energy efficiency upgrades to the Aemetis Keyes Biofuels plant, and the Aemetis Sustainable Aviation Fuel and Renewable Diesel project include $57 million of grant funding and other support from the California Air Resources Board, the US Department of Agriculture, the US Forest Service, the California Energy Commission, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, CAEATFA, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, and Pacific Gas and Electric's energy efficiency program.