RE:COP28 summit: Cow Burps, Food Waste In Focus On Agriculture Landfills in Canada release 700,000 MT of methane annually. Methane is 80 times more intense than CO2 as a GHG over 20 years so this is the equivalent of 55 Million MT of CO2. Oil sands operations produce 70 Million MT of CO2 annually. The Pathways Alliance proposes to spend $24 Billion by 2030 on Carbon Capture & Storage to remove 12 Million MT of CO2 from their oil sands operations. It is expected that they will not proceed until the government (taxpayers) provides a subsidy of $ 20 billion over the next 5 years through direct funding or tax credits.
Companies like GRN, ANRG, Xebec (now bankrupt) and others provide the proven technology to capture and process Methane. Unfortunately, they struggle to survive because the value of trapping methane is negligible. RNG projects therefor can not be profitable and have difficulty attracting investment funds. They receive no subsidy.
Logic would suggest that if the oil sands is receiving a $20 Billion subsidy to construct a technically and financially risky CCS system then the RNG industry should, accordingly, be eligible for about $ 16 Billion ($20 Billion X 55 Million MT/70 Million MT) to remove about 9 Million MT of CO2 by 2030. Maybe the RNG industry can get hold of a small portion of the global $7 Trillion of subsidies that is provided to the fossil fuel industry.
Importantly, RNG projects use proven technology and can create many good paying jobs in Canada.