Post 47 in a series. When Green Turns Brown is an examination of a small town’s digester-energy project, in which Whitewater, Wisconsin would import other cities’ waste, claiming that the result would be both profitable and green.
Last week’s post looked at a description from 9.17.15 of the waste-importation plan. Earlier, on March 16, 2015, Whitewater’s City Manager, Cameron Clapper, described importing waste into the city, and supposedly generating methane from it, as “probably the greenest process we have in the city.”
The 9.17.15 description leaves doubtful the amount of methane that Mr. Clapper expects the project to generate, or even if that’s a genuine aim (as against making money from tipping – that is, dumping – fees.)
Today’s question is 291. All the questions in this series may be found in the Question Bin.
So, a simple question about methane:
291. How green, actually, is production of methane?
There’s a discussion about methane to consider later in this series, and the answer may surprise. Even assuming methane production were to take off, following widescale waste importation, would the contention that this is a green process (or by Mr. Clapper’s account would be the ‘greenest process’ in the city) actually withstand scrutiny?
If methane production would withstand scrutiny as a green process, then so withstanding would lend credence to Mr. Clapper’s claim.
If methane production wouldn’t withstand scrutiny as a green process, then its failure to do so would suggest Mr. Clapper is ignorant of the very subject about which he claims consistently, in several presentations, to have an understanding.
WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN: Mondays @ 10 AM, here on FREE WHITEWATER.
Why is the city wasting money on methane? There’s cheap fuel now so why spend $ on this when we coudl get fuel for less? Plus, if it’s bad anyway that’s creating a bigger problem.
It’s a fair point, that I’ll need to consider further: does the expense justify producing methane (for the city, for anyone) as against conventional supplies?
Methane’s not the deal, really. It’s dumping crap (not cream) for tipping fees. But I guess if the city wants to convince people that they will produce something out of this, it makes sense to say that even the gas they generate is bad (for the environment). There’s an argument that it’s worse than natural gas by the way.There’s practically no part of this project that can’t be refuted.
Agreed, I don’t think methane’s the main deal, either: it’s tipping fees, or water sales, that the city wants as a revenue stream. Water’s especially interesting, because water generation requires large-volume importation, as is needed for meaningful, aggregate tipping fees, too.
As you’ve said, however, it’s local government that wants to tout methane production, so it’s worth looking (later on) at what methane actually means for the economy and environment.
Can anybody say “quagmire”? That’s where this is going.