Hastings Greens council candidates congratulate the initiative by council to reduce methane emissions from solid waste dumps (Port News, July 6; Camden Haven Courier July 11). Behavioural change of this nature is exactly the type of response envisaged by placing a price on carbon. This creates a positive vision for the future if this becomes the norm. By capturing the methane emissions, a win/win solution is achieved where beneficiaries are both the long-term environment and short-term savings to ratepayers. Methane can be twenty-five times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
If this energy source can be harnessed and converted into electricity, so much the better. I have seen biogas enterprises in Burma, Vietnam and India where methane is used as a fuel for generator sets to successfully electrify rural villages.
Initiatives of this type by council staff will be strongly supported by Greens councillors if they are elected in September.
Ian Oxenford
Hastings Greens council candidate
