As is so often the case, The Onion provides insightful commentary above. Along with the recession, carbon offsets have lost their luster from the hype in 2006 and 2007.
And not without reason, as the Onion intimates, there are a huge number of problems though in fairness to some of the good players like NativeEnergy and TerraPass there are some good ones too.
In the case of PG&E's ClimateSmart however, their choice to invest in highly questionable forest offsets makes this program a poor choice. And it appears that the program is limping along.
ClimateSmart charges customers to have the carbon emissions footprint of their gas and electricity use calculated. A small fee — the average is less than $5 a month — is then added to their monthly bill. The revenue generated by ClimateSmart allows PG&E to buy carbon offsets from a variety of projects, including forest conservation efforts in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
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But so far, only 30,000 customers — 0.6 percent — have enrolled. The largest concentration of ClimateSmart customers is in San Francisco. There are about 4,000 enrolled customers in Silicon Valley, including businesses like Fresh Choice, eBay, the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, IKEA and the San Jose Convention Center.
PG&E has asked the California Public Utilities Commission for permission to extend the program, which is set to expire at the end of the year, in hopes that it can increase enrollment.
But consumer advocates with TURN, The Utility Reform Network, say PG&E should just pull the plug.
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TURN says that while only 30,000 PG&E customers have enrolled in ClimateSmart since it launched in 2007, all PG&E customers subsidize the costs of the program through the rates they pay. Since its launch, ClimateSmart has collected approximately $4.5 million in contributions from residential, commercial, and municipal customers. TURN argues that PG&E has allocated $12 million for marketing and advertising with little results.
PG&E buys the carbon offsets from a variety of projects, including forest conservation efforts and the capture of methane gas from dairy farms and landfills. One partner is the Lompico Headwaters Forest Project, which includes 425 acres of redwoods and Douglas firs in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Sempervirens Fund, a land conservancy that manages the forest, sells carbon offsets to PG&E; the fund then uses the money to pay for its conservation efforts.
Perhaps the other shady operations will also stay away.
GOOD provides a worthwhile review of the issues, some key providers and standards.
Rafael @www.climateatbay.net
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