Southern California Gas Company will pay $119.5 million to compensate for the methane emissions from a major gas leak at the Aliso Canyon storage facility in October 2015, according to a Feb. 25 press release from the California Air Resources Board. The settlement, approved by the Los Angeles Superior Court, will fully mitigate the 109,000 metric tons of methane released during the five-month leak, by 2031, the agency said.

At least $26.5 million will be used to mitigate emissions in dairies – the largest source of the state’s emissions – by providing loans to construct methane digesters. California Bioenergy will construct conditioning facilities and pipelines to receive biomethane, which will be distributed from the pipeline system for use as transportation fuel. The loans and interest will be sent to the Aliso Canyon recovery account created by legislation enacted in 2017, and then allocated by the legislature for other programs to mitigate the impacts from the leak.