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Partnership Fuels Market for Cleaner Energy

By Robert J. Meyers

The world is getting smarter about clean energy and how it can contribute to climate-change solutions. With the help of the Bush administration and the EPA, countries around the world are joining efforts with companies and other organizations to use methane as a cleaner source of energy. It’s good for the environment. And it’s good for business—not just here, but around the world.

The Methane to Markets Partnership is bringing together the market expertise, financing, and technology necessary for developing cost-effective methane recovery and use projects at landfills, coal mines, oil and gas systems, and agricultural operations. Partner countries are working in collaboration with the private sector, multilateral development banks, and other governmental and nongovernmental organizations to make environmental and economic progress with respect to these projects. More than 550 public and private sector partners and 20 countries have joined Methane to Markets since the program’s launch in November 2004.

Later this year, the partnership will be highlighting its efforts at the first Methane to Markets Partnership Expo, to be held in Beijing, from October 30 to November 1. This event will be a forum for participants to share information and join forces on project development, technology deployment, financing, and policy. Cosponsored by the EPA and China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the expo promises to be the premier international forum for promoting methane recovery and use project opportunities and technologies.

For example, the EPA is currently working with several public and private sector partners around the world to advance landfill gas-to-energy project development. Methane emitted from landfills is a reliable and renewable fuel option that represents largely untapped environmental and energy opportunities at thousands of landfills. The EPA is working in collaboration with the Mexican Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources, the US Agency for International Development, and the North American Development Bank to assess project potential at landfills in the Mexican cities of Ensenada and Nuevo Laredo. Combined, these landfill projects are expected to reduce annual emissions by more than 45,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Capturing and using this methane as a cleaner energy source will yield substantial energy, economic, and environmental benefits.

By 2015, Methane to Markets has the potential to reduce annual methane emissions by up to 50 million metric tons of carbon equivalent—roughly the yearly greenhouse gas emissions from 50 500-MW coal-fired power plants.

President Bush and the EPA are committed to being a good global neighbor by exporting America’s environmental successes to our international partners. Methane to Markets is precisely the kind of global public-private partnership that is required to address the challenges of both cleaner energy development and responding to climate change.

For more information, visit http://www.epa.gov/methanetomarkets.

Robert J. Meyers is principal deputy assistant administrator with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Air and Radiation.

MSW - September/October 2007