Energy, science, and technology to manage and control greenhouse gas


	Some policies which are being considered for GHG management may even discourage removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Reflection on the landfill concept reminds us of Mother Nature’s methods to produce fossil fuels as carbon is moved underground from the atmosphere by burying organic wastes.
	Presumably waste management systems could be designed which would trap nearly all of the carbon in organic waste thus forming a sink and a potential emission removal credit. On the other hand if the waste were simply incinerated the carbon content would be released to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. No removal or reduction credit would be generated.
	In between these extremes there is the possibility of generating methane. Methane is 21 times more effective than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. It thus seems possible to create up to 28 carbon dioxide equivalent credits from processes which produce methane. That makes them much more financially rewarding than those which might actually sequester carbon.
	Establishing policy to provide credits for landfill gas capture could thus discourage waste management which would be carbon neutral or would actually remove carbon from the atmosphere.