This is the “30×30” goal the US signed onto with 158 other nations on the recommendation of hundreds of the leading climate scientists but that the Trump Administration has walked away from.
The federal government has turned its back on the goals the US set despite the clear evidence that floods, wildfires, droughts, and melting glaciers are causing more and more death and destruction every year. The 2024 hurricane season was the most destructive in US history, causing an estimated $500 billion in damage to property, the economy, and public health. The disastrous floods in central Texas in July were perhaps the most tragic example in the US this year as the warming air from the Gulf of Mexico lead to massive rainstorms raising the Guadalupe River some 28 feet and killing more than 135 – many camping children. But such events have done nothing to convince this climate-blind Administration to accept that we are a facing a true crisis.
On the positive side, Energy Vision remains committed to promoting practical, actionable solutions. Our research is showing that cutting methane emissions from waste and turning these captured gases into clean renewable natural gas (RNG) fuel has major economic and environmental advantages. Energy Vision has expanded our tangible, state-specific guidance from New York to now include Washington State and Arizona. For Washington, we have provided an in-depth analysis of how policymakers there could facilitate a buildout of anaerobic digesters to capture methane from dairy operations. This approach would both make direct progress toward the 30×30 goal and provide crucial economic benefits to farmers as they implement climate-friendly measures (many of which would otherwise be unaffordable).
Meanwhile, our other new report, Leading with Landfills, provides a new, extremely cost-effective approach that every state can use to tackle their emissions from landfills – the third-largest source of US methane. With existing technology and proven techniques, over 900 landfills across the US could capture more of their methane, refine it and sell it as clean RNG, quickly recouping their investment and then some. This would be a quick win at very low cost for every state. And collectively it would cut total US methane emissions by a whopping 7.2%.
Millions of Americans of all political persuasions wanting to see our country thrive economically have reason to raise their voices in support of turning organic waste into renewable energy while cutting methane emissions deeply. Tens of thousands of new jobs can be created to implement these proven strategies to reduce the country’s huge and expensive organic waste stream and reach 30×30. Now more than ever we need cities, states and the private sector to take the lead.
