Congress is considering a bill that would provide tax credits to incinerators, landfills and coal gasification plants. Tell your representatives to end subsidies to technologies that trash the climate and urge them to support conservation, efficiency, wind, solar and zero waste instead.

Wasted Energy: Debunking the Waste-to-Energy Scheme Like any other vampire, “waste to energy” technology, e.g., burning garbage for electricity, needs a good, swift stake to the heart. Decades after garbage incinerators disappeared from U.S. cities, burning garbage with energy recovery made a dash for federal, state and city subsidies following the energy crisis in the l970s and ’80s. It had a brief flurry of activity but, by the time the ’90s hit, was on the decline. Only 30 of 300 proposed plants were ever built—the last ones in l995 as the result of some dubious political shenanigans in Syracuse, New York and Montgomery County, Maryland.

Dramatically decreasing waste disposed in landfills and incinerators will reduce greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent to closing 21 percent of U.S. coal-fired power plants - comparable to leading climate protection proposals such as improving national vehicle fuel efficiency.