American Electric Power Co. Inc. has announced it will buy 4.6 million carbon credits between the years 2010 and 2017. These credits will go towards supporting a large-scale livestock methane offset program.

The press release stated:

The project will capture and destroy methane from approximately 400,000 head of livestock on as many as 200 farms. Columbus-based AEP annually will purchase up to 600,000 carbon credits, with each credit equal to 1 ton of carbon dioxide reduction, between 2010 and 2017 at a fixed price from Environmental Credit Corp., a State College, Pa.-based environmental credit supplier and project developer. Methane from livestock manure accounts for 6.6 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. ECC will install covers on manure storage lagoons to capture and flare off methane, which will convert it to carbon dioxide. The process will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and odors the livestock farms emit.

It sounds like an interesting project. To check out the entire press release (and I suggest you do — it’s worth a read!), click here.

via [treehugger]