Methane Strategy “Does Not Go Far Enough” : Babcock & Wilcox Urges US to Favour Waste to Energy Over Landfill

Charlotte, Carolina based energy and environmental technologies and services firm, Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, (B&W) (NYSE: BW) has provided formal comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed emissions rules for municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills, calling for more stringent limits on emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas that plays a role in climate change.

The firm, parent company to Danish waste to energy technology firm, Babcock & Wilcox Vølund, noted EPA figures that show methane from landfill is responsible for 18% of manmade methane emissions in the United States.

Reducing these methane emissions is a key piece of the Obama administration’s 2013 Climate Action Plan, while the EPA’s recently announced Clean Power Plan rule recognises waste to energy power as a reliable, renewable base load technology.

However, B&W’s said that it is concerned that the proposed rule doesn’t secure the level of methane reduction that could be achieved through encouraging recycling, the diversion of organic waste from landfills and the deployment of waste to energy power generation technology to support sustainable base-loaded power.

“While we applaud the administration’s strategy to reduce methane emissions, we are concerned that the proposed rule does not go " enough,” commented E. James Ferland, chairman and chief executive officer of B&W. “We urge the Agency to modify the rule to support recycling, the diversion of organic waste from landfills and greater reliance on waste-to-energy to achieve significantly higher methane reductions.”

“B&W also recommends that the EPA use the 20 year global warming potential of methane as established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its Fifth Assessment Report in the final rule,” added Ferland.

Click here to read the full text of B&W’s EPA letter and comments.

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