The Cranky Consumer - May/June 2006 - From the Ground Up

From the Ground Up

The Cranky Consumer

Clear Conscience, Clear Skies

By Brigit Macomber

May/June Issue, 2006

A utopian future of blue skies, clear water, and clean energy -- impossible you say? Just let your fingers do the walking through carbon credit websites extolling (and selling) the virtues of wind, solar, and biomass energy. It’s worth visiting Green-e.org or NativeEnergy.com just to revel in the gorgeous pictures of sweeping Southwest wind farms and happy cows at a biomass producing dairy.

With the average American responsible for over 24 tons of CO₂ per year, twice the European and ten times the Chinese averages, what self respecting American would not be attracted by affordable green absolution? Cranky Consumer was totally seduced by these glossy websites.
If carbon credits ring a bell it’s because they have been in the news lately due to global warming’s increasing traction and Ford’s recent splashy announcement that it will offer Terrapass carbon credits to its buyers. Celebrities and companies such as the band Coldplay, Aveda, and Clif Bar are all jumping on the carbon credit bandwagon to offset their energy use. Ahnold might even buy carbon neutrality for his Hummers soon!

But what exactly are carbon credits and what are they good for? Products vary but basically you are paying to put cleaner renewable energy into power grids, here or abroad, to offset the dirty energy you use to fly to Europe, commute 40 miles to work, or heat your house. Some carbon credit sellers plant trees to offset CO₂ emissions though the long-term benefits of this method are uncertain.

It’s confusing that you’re not directly paying to actually use cleaner energy yourself. But that’s not possible yet for air travel or most car use. And while renewable energy is produced in small amounts in most states it’s still not possible for a power company to isolate it and deliver it to a particular consumer.

Also confusing is that you do not reduce your current expenses for the dirty energy you buy from utilities or at the gas pump. One way of looking at them, and many sellers make this point, is in absence of government and corporate action on global warming and pending petroleum poopout, they are a way for the average citizen of the world to invest towards a carbon neutral and energy secure future. But mainly they are sold to people with energy intense lifestyles who want to offset them in an immediate way.

Of course my hardened activist colleagues, when told of this topic, growled “Who evaluates these?” and “How much of the proceeds go to overhead and profit?” Excellent questions for starry-eyed cranky. There are several certification programs including two in the U.S., Green-e and Environmental Resource Trust. They both define standards for renewable energy and carbon credit certificates on their websites. One or both are cited by most U.S. sellers as their independent verification.

As for profit, it does not take a cynic to see the opportunity for exploitation of self-flagellating environmentalists in this industry. Some sellers are nonprofits, which helps assure buyers of their intentions. Others are for profit but have a compelling angle to their programs such as NativeEnergy, which is majority tribal owned and aims to benefit Native American communities while producing cleaner energy. Though if you want as much money as possible to go towards the carbon-offset mission, nonprofits are probably the way to go.

Other U.S. sellers, as compared on EcoBusinessLinks.com, include Terrapass.com, a for-profit spin-off of U Penn’s Wharton School, which keeps it simple by offering a carbon calculator just for your annual driving. It claims to limit its profits to 10%. The nonprofit Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) uses its carbon credit proceeds to install solar electricity in small rural communities around the world.

The easiest way to purchase is via the Internet. At Carbonfund.org, a nonprofit carbon credit seller, you calculate your annual CO₂ footprint -- how many miles you drive, home square-footage, etc. -- then you buy credits to offset the tons of carbon you generate. You can forego calculating and just buy their annual package to offset the average American’s CO₂ emissions for $99 a year.

What you generally get with a carbon credit purchase is a certificate stating how many tons of CO₂ you are offsetting on an annual basis. What the world gets is expanded capacity for, and production of, renewable energy such as wind, solar, and biomass.

In the absence of federal efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, buying carbon credits, especially combined with energy saving strategies in our daily lives, is one of the ways we ordinary folk can help jumpstart the move to a clean and secure energy future, i.e. any future at all.

Brigit Macomber is Finance Manager of the Ecology Center.