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“Landfills are the third-largest source of methane, a super-pollutant greenhouse gas that traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency places caps on methane and other emissions from landfills, experts say that monitoring and enforcement is largely on an honor system. An analysis published earlier this year found that 95 percent of landfills across eight states had at least one violation of EPA safe limits.
Colorado is aiming to change that. State officials are launching a large-scale initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that includes plans to implement cutting-edge technologies for monitoring methane emissions from the state’s 80 landfills. The program, funded by a $129 million Climate Pollution Reduction Grant from the EPA, is the first of its kind and could set a precedent for other states, said Suzanne Jones, the executive director of Eco-Cycle, a Colorado-based nonprofit that promotes the development of zero-waste communities.”
Launched on June 1, 2017 by the governors of Washington, New York, and California to help fill the void left by the previous administration’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, the Alliance has grown to include 24 governors from across the U.S. representing approximately 60% of the U.S. economy and 55% of the U.S. population. Governors in the Alliance have pledged to collectively reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26-28% by 2025, 50-52% by 2030, and 61-66% by 2035, all below 2005 levels, and collectively achieve overall net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as practicable, and no later than 2050.
The Alliance’s states and territories continue to demonstrate that climate action goes hand-in-hand with economic growth, job creation, and better public health. The Alliance reduced its collective net greenhouse gas emissions by 19% between 2005 and 2022, while increasing collective GDP by 30%, and is on track to meet its near-term climate goal by reducing collective GHG emissions 26% below 2005 levels by 2025. The coalition’s states and territories are employing more workers in the clean energy sector, achieving lower levels of dangerous air pollutants, and preparing more effectively for climate impacts and executing more pre-disaster planning than the rest of the country.
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