Earth Equity News

Carbon Offsets Abroad Likely Greater Than Emissions Reductions at Home. By Laura Shin, Solve Climate, August 6, 2009. "On August 4, a non-partisan government agency released an analysis of the climate change bill [PDF, 81 pp] being considered by Congress, examining what impact the pending legislation would have on energy markets and the economy. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected that the American Clean Energy and Security Act would, by 2020, result in an $134 a year increase in an average household's energy bill. Immediately, both proponents and opponents of the bill began touting the estimate -- which projected a modest increase in energy prices through the year 2030 -- as bolstering their side's argument. ACES proponents said the increase, roughly 23 cents a day, was nominal, while opponents called it an energy tax. But in the back and forth, an important point was obscured: the report showed wide-ranging uncertainty over how effective the bill will be in meeting one of its primary goals -- reducing the emission of greenhouse gases from capped sources of pollution in the United States. That's because a safety valve built into the bill - carbon offsets - makes it possible for polluters to pay someone else to reduce emissions instead... The rules are so complicated that the outcome is actually a big guessing game, even for the EIA... It is most likely that the emissions cap in the ACES bill will be met less by reductions of CO2 at home, and more by paying others abroad to make reductions instead. Offsets are meant to fund new emissions reduction projects -- projects that would not have happened if the offset hadn't been purchased. But that is easier said than done."