NEW REPORT: NW Natural’s Biomethane Boondoggle Finds SB 98 Is Greenwashing Fossil Gas, Driving Pollution, and Failing Oregon’s Climate Goals

A new report from the Sierra Club and Breach Collective takes aim at NW Natural, the gas utility serving much of Oregon, over how it's spending money collected from customers' gas bills. Under Senate Bill 98 (SB 98), a law the utility itself pushed for, gas companies can invest in "renewable natural gas," or biomethane, made largely from animal waste, even when it costs far more than regular gas. The report says NW Natural has funneled more than $60 million in ratepayer money into out-of-state biomethane projects tied to large industrial livestock operations, including facilities linked to Tyson Foods in Nebraska, without meaningfully cutting gas use or climate emissions.

The report also flags financial troubles: a Nebraska biomethane project backed by Oregon ratepayers shut down after only a few years, and a planned $43 million facility in Washington state was quietly dropped in 2025, with the cost to customers unclear. Despite the spending, NW Natural is falling well short of the targets SB 98 set, including a 5 percent biomethane goal for 2024, and the report says future targets for 2029 and 2050 look out of reach.

For homeowners, the report argues this matters because money spent chasing biomethane is money not going toward electrification and heat pumps, which it calls a faster, cheaper way to cut home energy emissions. The report's authors want SB 98 repealed and ratepayer funds redirected toward electrification, heat pumps, and efficiency upgrades instead. Homeowners in other states can check what similar programs, if any, their own utility offers.