Jennifer Marohasy

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Republicans Ask for Investigation Into Carbon Offset Programs

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WASHINGTON – Two top Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee today asked committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., and U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., to open an investigation into carbon offset programs.

U.S. Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and John Shimkus, R-Ill., ranking member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, asked Dingell and Stupak, chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, to investigate various aspects of the programs, focusing on the lack of oversight in offset marketing schemes.

Recent reporting in The Wall Street Journal indicates that the fast-growing market for carbon offset programs may be producing little real gain in greenhouse gas reduction.

“A key concern is carbon ‘offsets’ that would have happened anyway are being sold as additional reductions, undercutting the whole point of the program,” Barton and Shimkus wrote. “If this is the case, the only additional greening taking place may be in the bank accounts of the people selling the offsets.”

A copy of the letter to Dingell and Stupak can be found here: http://republicans.energycommerce.house.gov/Media/File/News/041708_Carbon_Offset_Investigation.pdf

LInk and press release via Marc Morano. Thanks.

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  1. Woody says

    “…the only additional greening taking place may be in the bank accounts of the people selling the offsets.”

    No kidding. These carbon offsets are like the ridiculous “wetlands offset” in my state, where a company wanting to expand its facilities by filling up a swamp, I mean wetlands, can purchase an offsetting commitment from another party to preserve other swamp property.

    I have a neighbor who does this. He sells guarantees to preserve swamp land that would never have any other use. Nothing was gained except some money in the pocket of the seller, a feeling of accomplishment by the politicians, and a victory dance by the environmentalists out to hurt business and protect mosquitoes.

    Come to think of it, Al Gore is like those Florida developers who sell swamp land to the unsuspecting.

  2. ZZMike says

    They could start with Generation Investments, Inc. That’s the carbon-offset trading firm that Al Gore is chairman of, along with David Blood.

    There’s a great comment in one of the blogs (maybe even yours – I’ve been jumping around a lot): that carbon-offset trading is very much like the old Catholic Church practice of selling indulgences.