Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 88%

Joanna D. Underwood writes about Renewable Natural Gas which is produced by capturing biogases.

If we leave fossil fuel deposits in the ground, their hydrocarbons stay in the ground. But if we leave our organic wastes alone and don’t refine them into fuel, they release their hydrocarbons into the atmosphere anyway as they break down. Every day, in urban and rural landscapes across the U.S., over 78 million tons of food and yard wastes are thrown out by homes and businesses, plus much more organic waste from food processing plants, supermarkets, farms, sewage, etc., are decomposing and emitting GHG without producing usable energy.

Every fleet converted from diesel to RNG would cut its GHG emissions by 88 percent or higher. This exceeds U.S. goals of a 20 percent reduction by 2020 and and 80 percent reduction by 2050, as well as even tougher goals recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). RNG would cost about a third of diesel, and create tens of thousands of sustainable, place-based, unexportable jobs.