Leavitt unveils methane initiative

WASHINGTON — EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt announced Wednesday a new global initiative to help poorer countries convert methane — a dangerous, explosive waste gas that contributes to global warming — into a clean fuel source.

"We will reduce methane emissions by capturing methane gases from landfills, underground coal mines, and natural gas and oil systems. We'll realize double benefits by using the emissions as a clean-burning energy source," he said. "Just call it a two-fer."

Leavitt announced the new "Methane to Markets Partnership" at EPA headquarters along with representatives from seven other founding countries: Australia, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Ukraine.

In addition, an international conference is scheduled for November in Washington to help developing countries take advantage of new methane-recovering technology. Leavitt said the United States is committing up to $53 million over five years to help the effort abroad and is seeking millions more in private business investment.

Leavitt said it could save 50 million metric tons of carbon equivalent pollution annually by 2015.

"That is the equivalent of removing 33 million cars from the roadways for a year, or the equivalent emissions of fifty 500-megawatt coal-fired plants," Leavitt said.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham added that it would bring the equivalent benefits of "planting 55 million acres of trees on the global planet."

Leavitt, in teaching a bit of science, noted, "Methane is the primary component of natural gas." The process of decay produces it in landfills. It is often found in pockets of coal beds and can cause explosions in coal mines. Natural gas and oil production and transport can produce it as byproducts or through leaks.

Leavitt added, "It is the second most abundant greenhouse gas" that contributes to global warming behind carbon dioxide. "It contributes 16 percent of the total greenhouse gases," he said.

The United States since 1993 has pushed numerous initiatives to reduce methane emissions and utilize it as a fuel. Coal-bed methane — once considered a dangerous waste gas in coal mines — has in some cases become as profitable for natural gas production as the coal itself from those mines, for example.

With such efforts, U.S. methane emissions in 2001 were 5 percent lower than emissions in 1990 — despite significant growth in that period.

U.S. programs aim to achieve methane reductions of 16 million metric tons of carbon equivalent by 2015 — which is not included in the additional 50 million metric tons the new program hopes to achieve elsewhere.