​Ballot summary: In order to reduce emissions, create more jobs, and help diverse the United States' energy sector with reliable natural gas without the added risk of fracking we need to convert our existing landfills into biogas production facilities.

Full Ballot: In 2018, the United States produced 126.52 million Tonnes of methane from the waste sector alone. According to the EPA “Methane is the second most abundant anthropogenic GHG after carbon dioxide (CO2), accounting for about 20 percent of global emissions. Methane is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.” Therefore, methane is a gas that should be focused on to reduce emissions as soon as possible.

According to the EIA “Biogas is an energy-rich gas produced by anaerobic decomposition or thermochemical conversion of biomass.” Which happens to meet the same conditions as landfills. The EIA continues stating that, “Biogas is composed mostly of methane (CH4), the same compound in natural gas, and carbon dioxide (CO2) ...Biogas can be burned directly as a fuel or treated to remove the CO2 and other gases for use just like natural gas.” With that in mind we can convert all U.S. landfills into methane production facilities not only will that create local jobs, create revenue for the state by selling biogas, reduce methane and CO2 emissions but also reduce natural gas and or oil production.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration 4.82 quadrillion British thermal units is how much the residents of the United States consumed last year in Natural gas alone. The natural gas the EIA is referring to excludes biogas. Which means that most homes in America rely on the unsafe and controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing (or fracking). Fracking is the practice of horizontal directional drilling of wells in addition to the use of water, sand and BTEX chemicals (like benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, and several others that have been implicated in endocrine disruption) at high pressures to fracture rock and release hydrocarbons. Because of these high pressures permeating deep underground it can cause earthquakes. The largest earthquake known to be induced by hydraulic fracturing in the United States was a M4 earthquake in Texas. Earthquakes not only risk human lives but, can cost billions of tax payer dollars for building repairs. This isn’t the only risk involved in Fracking. Fracking has been linked to preterm births, high-risk pregnancies, asthma, migraine headaches, fatigue, nasal and sinus symptoms, and skin disorders according to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia. The drilling process and fracking fluids also acquire and bring to the surface a number of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs) (Brown, 2014). The EPA has also confirmed that fracking is a risk to our future water supply. Stating, “Disposal or storage of hydraulic fracturing wastewater in unlined pits resulting in contamination of groundwater resources.”

The reason Fracking has become highly relied upon in the U.S. is that natural gas, consisting of methane, is the cleanest burning of the fossil fuels, with lower emissions of carbon dioxide per unit of derived energy and virtually no release of combustion toxicants. However, those same benefits can still be accomplished if we convert landfills into biogas production facilities which can provide the same reliable, clean burning fuel with lower emissions. This isn’t a radical or untested idea either. Dane County, which includes the city of Madison, Wisconsin, has been harvesting methane emissions from a landfill for more than two decades. “Starting in 1995, the county began, using the gas to produce, on average, 29,000-megawatt hours (MWh) of renewable electricity per year – 80% of the annual electricity use for county operations.” The state of Wisconsin as well as other investors paid roughly $12 million per facility. The United States has a total of around 2,632 landfills across the country. Therefore, the closest estimated cost for expanding this project nationwide would be about $31.584 billion. In 2021, the United States earned $4.05 trillion dollars in taxes. The US military spent $801 billion in 2021, which means the U.S. could save about 126.52 million Tonnes of methane with just 3.94% of what we spend on the military in one year alone. With that $31 billion one-time investment, we get the benefits of creating revenue for the state, local jobs, and cheap, reliable, and sustainable energy for citizens.

On average, Dane Counties' landfills produce 29,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of renewable electricity per year. According to the EIA, the average American consumes 10,715-kilowatt hours (kWh) per year. If we converted all of our existing landfills into biogas production facilities, we could provide power for more than 7 million American households. This will not allow us to replace all of our fracking facilities but the importance is to reduce our reliance on them in order to have access to healthier air, land, and water. Most people are willing to spend however much the government may need in taxes in order to have access to clean electricity and no longer having to wonder if their water is safe to drink. This issue is about trying to improve quality of life without sacrificing the electricity people want.

I think it's important to talk about the risk we run if we continue to invest in natural gas. EHN investigated what Pennsylvania families close to fracking sites have been exposed to. They found chemicals like benzene, ethylbenzene, styrene, toluene, and butylcyclohexane in drinking water, air samples, and in the bodies of children living near fracking wells at levels up to 91 times as high as the average American and substantially higher than levels seen in the average adult cigarette smoker.

“The chemicals we found in the air and water—and inside of people's bodies—are linked to a wide range of harmful health impacts, from skin and respiratory irritation to organ damage and increased cancer risk.”

However, there seems to be more at risk than citizens' quality of life. Polls show that a majority of Pennsylvania residents oppose fracking meaning that this is an issue that could swing an election. Meanwhile, financial analysts fret about the industry's massive debt overhang and uncertain future, especially post-COVID-19. The New York Times had this to say,

“The stocks of two once-mighty Marcellus Shale pioneers, Range Resources and EQT, have plummeted, and their bonds are trading at steep discounts, a sign that investors believe they could default on their debts.

The debts of those two companies and Southwestern Energy, another shale business focused on Pennsylvania, have increased by a combined $7 billion since 2008. Their operations generated far too little cash to pay for their investments. In fact, the three companies’ capital spending exceeded operating cash flows by $14 billion in that period.”

With that being said Frackers have destroyed their relationship with shareholders which also makes new investors disinterested. On top of the economic downturn being expected to depress demand for gas overall. It's time that the United States Diversify its energy sector and stop relying so heavily on fossil fuels which will be exhausted eventually.

It’s time to start investing more of our tax dollars into renewable energy projects like converting landfills into biogas production facilities. These facilities will capture the methane being emitted from landfills preventing it from worsening climate change which protects our air quality and keeps us in line with the Paris Agreement. We can then use that captured methane as gas either for vehicles or for American homes. These facilities will increase jobs and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, allowing us to shut down some of our fracking wells. The reason we want to reduce fracking is because of how damaging it is to the environment and to citizens' health.