Muni Bonds for Cow Manure-to-Natural Gas Project Default

About $40 million of municipal bonds issued to build a cow manure-to-natural gas facility on a Wisconsin farm defaulted after it missed a June 1 principal payment.

The tax-exempt green bonds were sold by the town of Gillett, Wisconsin in late 2021 to finance a biogas facility on behalf of Aerogy LLC, a portfolio company of Macquarie Capital. Aerogy built the facility at Zahn’s Farms dairy, according to a Macquarie news release.

UMB Bank, which is the trustee for bondholders, said borrower WI RNG Hub North LLC would not pay a $1.7 million principal payment due June 1, ...