Turning Trash Into Treasure: These Energy Stocks Are Betting Big on Converting Garbage Into Gas (and Cash)

Landfills are major greenhouse gas emitters. They're the third-largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 14.4% of the total. Landfills produce carbon dioxide and methane gas. Methane is the more dangerous contributor to global warming. It's 28 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

While methane gas is harmful to the environment when emitted, it's much less damaging when burned as a fuel to generate electricity or power commercial vehicles. That's leading several energy companies to invest heavily in facilities to capture landfill gas and convert it to valuable renewable natural gas (RNG).

Energy giants (NYSE: BP), Enbridge (NYSE: ENB), and Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) have invested heavily in recent years to buy and build RNG platforms. British energy giant BP made the biggest splash, acquiring Archea Energy for $4.1 billion in 2022. At the time, Archea operated 50 RNG and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the U.S. BP aimed to grow Archea's output fivefold to 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/d) by 2030.