Earth Equity News

House Is Abandoning Carbon Neutral Plan. By David A. Fahrenthold, WashPost, March 1, 2009. "The U.S. House of Representatives has abandoned a plan to make its offices 'carbon neutral,' a sign that Congress is wrestling with a pledge to become more green even as it crafts sweeping legislation on climate change. The promise that the House would effectively reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to zero was a centerpiece of the Green the Capitol program in which the new Democratic leadership sought to use Capitol Hill as a kind of a national demonstration project. But last week, a spokesman for the House's chief administrative officer said the chamber's leadership had dropped an essential part of the plan, the purchase of 'carbon offsets' to cancel out emissions from its buildings. Offsets are a controversial commodity that promises that a certain amount of pollution was captured or avoided elsewhere."