Biogas Equipment Used in Landfills | 2026 tax preference review

Legislative auditor's conclusion: Five landfills process landfill biogas into renewable natural gas or electricity, achieving the Legislature’s goal. Key points: • As organic waste decays in landfills, it creates biogas, which contains methane. Landfills are required to collect and control biogas. • Landfills do not pay sales and use tax for equipment used to process biogas into renewable natural gas or electricity. • The Legislature intended the preference to increase the production of renewable natural gas in Washington. • Two of the five landfills that process biogas started this work after the preference took effect, meeting the Legislature’s goal. • Current reporting requirements produce limited data about use and savings. This likely understates preference use. • Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) staff estimate that beneficiaries could save $428,000 per year in tax related to maintenance and repair. -- JLARC is a legislative committee in Washington State. We work to improve state government. We have an equal number of members from the House and Senate, evenly split between the parties. Nonpartisan staff do research, complete audits, and present findings to the committee. The legislative auditor oversees the work. Learn more about JLARC here: https://leg.wa.gov/about-the-legislat... Subscribe to JLARC's mailing list: https://public.govdelivery.com/accoun...