Agency Gives $4.5 M to M2M Projects
Through the Methane to Markets Partnership (M2M), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is funding 20 projects that will help 12 countries increase their capture and use of methane from the landfill, coal, agriculture, and oil, and natural gas sectors. These projects will receive more than $4.5 million in M2M grants from EPA.
Capturing methane from landfills and other sources is paving the way to a clean, green energy source and reducing greenhouse gases in the fight against climate change.
EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said, "By leveraging $4.5 million in grants, EPA and our international partners are reducing methane emissions and realizing a clean, reliable energy source."
Grants ranging from $90,000 to $700,000 are being awarded to help finance projects in Argentina, Brazil, China, Ecuador, India, Korea, Mexico, Mongolia, Nigeria, Poland, Thailand, and Ukraine. The grants will fund a wide variety of M2M activities designed to remove technical or informational barriers currently interfering with the successful capture and use of methane around the world.
Among the services provided are training, database development on potential project sites, feasibility studies, technology transfer, and project analysis. The grants build on the earlier success of a 2007 solicitation and provide significant new funding.
Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, is more than 20 times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. As the primary component of natural gas, methane is a valuable and clean-burning energy resource.
For more information, visit http://www.epa.gov/methanetomarkets/grants08.htm.