North America's Largest Owner and Operator of Landfills to Generate
Renewable Electricity From its U.S. and Canadian Landfills Over Next Five
Years
TORONTO, June 27 /CNW/ - Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE: WMI), today
announced a major initiative to expand its roster of landfill gas to energy
(LFGTE) facilities. The program will result in the creation of an additional
60 renewable energy facilities in North America over the next five years.
Together with its existing LFGTE facilities, Waste Management will generate
more than 700 megawatts of clean renewable energy - enough to power
700,000 homes or replace over eight million barrels of oil per year in North
America.
Waste Management plans to bring its four landfills in Ontario and two
landfills in Quebec on line within the next five years.
"We've proven that landfill gas to energy is a viable option for Canadian
jurisdictions," said Paul Pabor, vice president of renewable energy. "We've
had tremendous success with our Sainte-Sophie landfill site in Quebec that
saved a local paper mill from being shut down in 2005 by supplying 75 per cent
of its energy needs. The site reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 540,000 tons
a year - the equivalent of removing about 120,000 cars from the roads.
"It is important for the rest of Canada to follow the lead of
Sainte-Sophie and many U.S. jurisdictions who have embraced landfill gas to
energy technology."
The LFGTE initiative, which will generate enough electricity to power
approximately 230,000 homes, will position the company to serve the growing
market for renewable energy. In recent years, consumer awareness of
environmental issues has quickly increased demand for new sources of renewable
energy. LFGTE projects are especially valuable to utilities because they
provide dependable base load power, in contrast to the intermittent nature of
other renewable energy sources.
A pioneer in LFGTE projects, Waste Management designed and operated its
first such facility in the United States over 20 years ago. With
281 landfills, Waste Management is North America's largest landfill operator
and is in a unique position to expand waste-based renewable power generation
in Canada. The company is also exploring partnerships to expand its landfill
gas to energy technology to other private and municipal landfills.
Landfill gas, produced when microorganisms break down organic material in
the landfill, is comprised of approximately 50 to 60 per cent methane and
40 to 50 per cent carbon dioxide. At most landfills in Canada, these
greenhouse gases are simply burned off, or "flared". However, Waste Management
sites that have LFGTE facilities collect the methane and use it to fuel onsite
engines or turbines, generating electricity to power surrounding homes and
neighborhoods while creating a new revenue stream for the landfills. By
building LFGTE facilities, Waste Management reduces greenhouse gases by
offsetting the use of fossil fuel at the utility power plants.
About Waste Management
Waste Management, based in Houston, Texas, is the leading provider of
comprehensive waste management services in North America. Our subsidiaries
provide collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal
services. We are also a leading developer, operator and owner of
waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the North America.
Our customers include residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal
customers throughout North America. More information about how Waste
Management Thinks Green(R) can be found at www.wm.com/wm/thinkgreen.
The Company, from time to time, provides estimates of financial and other
data, comments on expectations relating to future periods and makes statements
of opinion, view or belief about current and future events. Statements
relating to future events and performance are "forward-looking statements."
The forward-looking statements that the Company makes are the Company's
expectations, opinion, view or belief at the point in time of issuance but may
change at some future point in time. By issuing estimates or making statements
based on current expectations, opinions, views or beliefs, the Company has no
obligation, and is not undertaking any obligation, to update such estimates or
statements or to provide any other information relating to such estimates or
statements. Outlined below are some of the risks that the Company faces and
that could affect our financial statements for 2007 and beyond and that could
cause actual results to be materially different from those that may be set
forth in forward-looking statements made by the Company. However, they are not
the only risks that the Company faces. There may be additional risks that we
do not presently know or that we currently believe are immaterial which could
also impair our business. We caution you not to place undue reliance on any
forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates. The following
are some of the risks that we face:- competition may negatively affect our profitability or cash flows,
our price increases may have negative effects on volumes and price
roll-backs and lower than average pricing to retain and attract
customers may negatively affect our yield on base business;
- we may be unable to maintain or expand margins if we are unable to
control costs;
- we may not be able to successfully execute or continue our
operational or other margin improvement plans and programs, including
pricing increases; passing on increased costs to our customers;
reducing costs due to our operational improvement programs; and
divesting under-performing assets and purchasing accretive
businesses, any of which could negatively affect our revenues and
margins;
- weather conditions cause our quarter-to-quarter results to fluctuate,
and extremely harsh weather or natural disasters may cause us to
temporarily shut down operations;
- inflation and resulting higher interest rates as well as other
general and local economic conditions may negatively affect the
volumes of waste generated, our financing costs and other expenses;
- possible changes in our estimates of site remediation requirements,
final capping, closure and post-closure obligations, compliance and
regulatory developments may increase our expenses;
- regulations, including regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions,
may negatively impact our business by, among other things,
restricting our operations, increasing costs of operations or
requiring additional capital expenditures;
- if we are unable to obtain and maintain permits needed to open,
operate, and/or expand our facilities, our results of operations will
be negatively impacted;
- limitations or bans on disposal or transportation of out-of-state or
cross-border waste or certain categories of waste can increase our
expenses and reduce our revenues;
- fuel price increases or fuel supply shortages may increase our
expenses, including our tax expense if Section 45K credits are phased
out due to continued high crude oil prices, or restrict our ability
to operate;
- increased costs to obtain financial assurance or the inadequacy of
our insurance coverages could negatively impact our liquidity and
increase our liabilities;
- possible charges as a result of shut-down operations, uncompleted
development or expansion projects or other events may negatively
affect earnings;
- fluctuating commodity prices may have negative effects on our
operating revenues and expenses;
- trends requiring recycling, waste reduction at the source and
prohibiting the disposal of certain types of wastes could have
negative effects on volumes of waste going to landfills and
waste-to-energy facilities;
- efforts by labor unions to organize our employees may increase
operating expenses and we may be unable to negotiate acceptable
collective bargaining agreements with those who have been chosen to
be represented by unions, which could lead to union-initiated work
stoppages, including strikes, which could adversely affect our
results of operations and cash flows;
- negative outcomes of litigation or threatened litigation or
governmental proceedings may increase our costs, limit our ability to
conduct or expand our operations, or limit our ability to execute our
business plans and strategies; problems with the operation of our
current information technology or the development and deployment of
new information systems may decrease our efficiencies and increase
our costs to operate;
- the adoption of new accounting standards or interpretations may cause
fluctuations in reported quarterly results of operations or adversely
impact our reported results of operations; and
- we may reduce or eliminate our dividend or share repurchase program
or we may need to raise additional capital if cash flows are less
than we expect or capital expenditures are more than we expect, and
we may not be able to obtain any needed capital on acceptable terms.Additional information regarding these and/or other factors that could
materially affect results and the accuracy of the forward-looking statements
contained herein may be found in Part I, Item 1 of the Company's Annual Report
on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006.
For further information: Waste Management, Inc., Analysts: Greg Nikkel -
(713) 265-1358; Media: Wes Muir - (905) 633-3940; Web site: http://www.wm.com
