Digest Highlights: Dairy waste-to-energy projects gain equity commitment. June fluid milk sales were flat. WOTUS comment deadline near. Find a summary of these and other news here.
June fluid milk sales flat
It was another month where increased sales of whole milk weren’t enough to offset declines in other categories, according to the USDA’s Dairy Market News.
June 2017 total U.S. packaged fluid milk sales were estimated 3.75 billion pounds, down 0.8 percent from June 2016. U.S. sales of conventional products totaled 3.54 billion pounds, down 0.8 percent from the previous year, while sales of organic products, at 208 million pounds, were down 1.7 percent. Organic represented nearly 5.5 percent of total sales for the month.
Sales of conventional whole and flavored whole milk did post gains compared to year-earlier levels, up 3.9 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively. Sales of organic whole milk were up 4.1 percent. However, sales of conventional and organic skim milk were down 11 percent and 17 percent, respectively.
Through the first six months of the year, U.S. fluid milk sales totaled 23.93 billion pounds, down 2.2 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. Year-to-date 2017 sales of conventional products totaled 22.63 billion pounds, down 2.3 percent. January-June 2017 sales of organic products, at 1.3 billion pounds, were up just 0.8 percent. Organic represented nearly 5.4 percent of total sales for the month.
The U.S. figures represent consumption of fluid milk products in federal milk marketing order areas and California, which account for approximately 92 percent of total fluid milk sales in the U.S. Sales outlets include food stores, convenience stores, warehouse stores/wholesale clubs, non-food stores, schools, the foodservice industry and home delivery.
AMP Americas secures equity commitment
AMP Americas, a company producing and marketing renewable natural gas from dairy waste, has received $47 million in equity commitment from Houston-based EIV Capital.
The capital will be used for additional projects to construct dairy waste-to-energy facilities. A company spokesman said engineering for one project on an as-yet unnamed Midwest dairy farm is already underway. California is also the focus for growth.
AMP Americas has three business units:
• Renewable Dairy Fuels, a facility producing compressed natural gas (CNG) from dairy manure at Fair Oaks Farms in Indiana,
• ampCNG, with owns 20 CNG fueling stations nationwide, serving the heavy-duty trucking industry, and
• ampRenew, which sources renewable natural gas and provides risk management.
Rescinding WOTUS: Comment deadline near
Another deadline in the life of federal “Waters of the U.S.” (WOTUS) regulations is approaching, according to the Texas Ag Law Blog. Read: WOTUS: Where Are We Now?
Controversy and lawsuits have dogged WOTUS since it was promulgated in 2015, claiming the regulations were overly broad and exceeded the scope of authority.
In February 2017, President Trump issued an executive order requiring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Corps of Engineers (COE) to “rescind or revise” the rule. In June, the EPA announced it would take the first step to rescind the 2015 rule and to re-codify the definition of WOTUS, opening a public comment period. That public comment period closes Aug. 28, after which EPA plans to propose a new rule. 
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Dave Natzke
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