Landfill Gas Attracts Federal Government Attention

It is something the City was requested to spend $50,000 on to see if the landfill could produce sufficient amounts of methane to warrant an electrical generation facility at the site.

And although it may have been seen as throwing good money after nothing more than hot air in December 2018 the federal government may have just sweetened the pot to make the idea more viable.

This past Friday the federal government released the draft regulations for Federal Greenhouse Gas Offset System (FGGOS). The purpose of the System is to reduce carbon emissions and create jobs.

The federal government is planning to institute a market-based system where a domestic carbon trading market will be established that will allow those who reduce greenhouse gases on a permanent basis to sell those credits to industry to off-set the costs they exceed their emission limits.

One of the areas touted as a potential growth area as part of the plan is for municipalities with older capped and operational landfills - which produce methane gas - to collect and burn the methane gas to produce electricity.

Although the burning of methane gas will create CO2 emissions they are far less damaging as greenhouse gases. Methane gas is a major greenhouse gas which scientists say is helping to fuel climate change. Methane gas’ impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change is 25 times what CO2 is.

The federal government sees the FGGOS as helping to stimulate growth across the country by encouraging the development of projects which include municipalities harvesting the methane for electrical generation and then selling the credits to off-set industrial carbon emissions exceeding what they are limited to.

At the present time the market is envisioned to sell the credits to industry which will benefit farmers, foresters, Indigenous communities, municipalities, and other project developers to earn revenues from greenhouse-gas reductions and removals.

At the present time the federal government is developing a Landfill Methane Management Protocol which will allow the burning of methane venting off of landfills to generate electricity and carbon credits which can be sold on the domestic carbon trading market.

“The Federal Greenhouse Gas Offset System is another tool we’re using to combat climate change and create a cleaner, healthier future. This system will encourage cost-effective emissions reductions right here in Canada and create new economic opportunities, particularly in the forestry, agriculture, and waste sectors,” the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change said in a statement.

The municipality would earn federal offset credits equivalent to the total amount of GHG emissions reduced and could sell these credits to industrial facilities regulated under the federal Output Based Pricing System to help them comply with their annual emissions limit.

GHG reductions will be measured against the baseline scenario where no landfill gas capture occurs and methane is released into the atmosphere.