Offers new opportunities to reduce carbon emissions within RGGI
3Degrees, in partnership with Dorchester Renewable Energy LLC, registered the first ever carbon offset project under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a mandatory cap and trade program covering the electric sector in nine states in the eastern U.S.
The project destroys methane gas from the New Beulah Landfill located on Maryland’s eastern shore. It is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions equal to more than 20,000 metric tons of CO2 per year.
“We are pleased to continue our history of ‘firsts’ in the carbon market, which dates back to a time when we were still known as TerraPass,” said Mark Mondik, Vice President of Carbon Markets at 3Degrees. TerraPass, renamed Origin Climate in 2014, became part of 3Degrees in a merger between the companies earlier this year.
The sale of RGGI offsets will provide the sole source of revenue to support the operation of the project.
“RGGI support is critical to this project,” said Tom Koch, Principal of Dorchester Renewable Energy. “Voluntary market prices for landfill gas offsets aren’t sufficient to make projects like this economically viable, but through RGGI we are able to reach higher-value buyers.”
According to the latest “Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks” published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), landfills in the United States still account for around 115 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions per year.
