The plan, which the EPA drew up using its authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, includes proposed regulations for new landfills, and a call for suggestions on whether the agency should issue regulations for existing landfills. The EPA said the regulations are needed not only to reduce climate change, but to reduce air pollution that winds up harming public health.
Landfills produce air pollution from the sheer volume of solid waste that sits in them. As the waste sits, it begins to break down, releasing what’s commonly known as “landfill gas” — a mixture of a variety of air toxins, including carbon dioxide. Landfill gas is mostly, however, made up of methane — so much that 18 percent of all methane emissions come from landfills. That’s the third-largest source of methane emissions in the country, behind agriculture and natural gas production. Methane accounts for nearly 9 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
The EPA’s plan seeks to reduce those emissions by issuing regulations for new landfills. Under those regulations, new landfills would only be allowed to put one third of their methane emissions into the atmosphere. The rest of their emissions — two thirds of all the methane they put into the atmosphere — would have to be captured. New landfills would have until 2023 to meet this requirement.
After methane is captured, it can be converted into an energy source, which landfill operators can then sell to fuel power plants, vehicles, and so on. Of the 1,900 landfills in the United States, approximately 560 are using techniques to capture methane gas and turn it into electricity.
In Newest Climate Push, EPA Proposes to Limit Methane Pollution from Trash Dumps
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