Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk announced Thursday Dane County is the first place in Wisconsin to allow vehicles to fill up with landfill gas.
The county partnered with multiple private companies to install new technology at the Dane County landfill that turns landfill gas into compressed natural gas, Joshua Wescott, Falk's spokesperson, said.
""Through innovation, we're saving tax dollars, cleaning up our air and turning an environmental problem into a green energy opportunity,"" Falk said in a statement.
Dane County started converting methane gas given off by decomposing landfill trash into electricity a few years ago, Wescott said. The methane gas costs around the equivalent of 20 cents per gallon of gasoline to convert the gas into fuel vehicles can use.
Falk also announced the county will be installing a new compressed natural gas filling station at the Robertson Road offices of the county's parks department. The station was purchased through a Clean Transportation federal stimulus grant of more than $400,000, Wescott said. This grant also helped the county buy numerous trucks that run on the compressed natural gas.
