Statement by the President

Released by the White House
Office of the Press Secretary

Today the United States and several major international partners are forming the Methane to Markets Partnership, a new and innovative program to increase energy security, improve environmental quality, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout the world. The United States will commit up to $53 million to the Partnership over the next five years. To date, Australia, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom have agreed to participate as founding partners, along with the United States.

Under the Partnership, members will work in coordination with the private sector to share and expand the use of technologies to capture methane emissions that are now wasted in the course of industrial processes and use them as a new energy source. The important benefits of this international partnership include improved energy security and air quality from the use of clean-burning methane as natural gas; improved coal mine safety; enhanced economic growth; and reduced greenhouse gas emissions of methane. The Partnership will be led by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Mike Leavitt, working closely with the Department of State, the Department of Energy, and the United States Agency for International Development. Administrator Leavitt will host a ministerial-level meeting of the founding international partners later this year. I look forward to working closely with our international partners to achieve the Partnership's important goals.