(Adds details on WM's current landfill gas use, Fujifilm project)
By Timothy Gardner
NEW YORK, June 27 (Reuters) - Waste Management Inc. (WMI.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday it will speed up its tapping of gas from rotting garbage to generate clean power from 60 landfills over five years.
The company, the country's largest landfill operator, will spend $400 million to bring turbines to the dumps, boosting its power generation from such projects to to 700 megawatts of power a year, or enough power for about 700,000 homes, the company said.
Waste Management will earn renewable energy credits it can bank or sell for its projects in states that have such programs.
Alternative energy sources are growing in the United States amid high oil and natural gas prices and as the U.S. Congress debates bills that would put limits on greenhouse gases.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says about 425 U.S. landfills tap gas for power and an additional 560 dumps hold promising supplies of the fuel.
Waste Management said landfills are more dependable than other sources of alternative energy.
"Unlike wind power, which doesn't always blow, or solar which doesn't always shine, landfills produce gas constantly," Paul Pabor, Waste Management's vice president of renewable energy, said in an interview.
