This article is by way of Grist and the Denver Post: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6754975 At several recent Sustainable Tompkins meetings this idea has been mentioned. We could be the second municipality. Anyone interested? It seems like a good way to keep local dollars and local carbon credits together. "Canary Tags" a feather in offset efforts <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]:%20''Canary% 20Tags''%20a%20feather%20in%20offset%20efforts> By Steve Lipsher Denver Post Staff Writer Article Last Updated: 08/30/2007 12:28:32 AM MDT
Aspen - For the Aspen resident feeling guilty about flying into Sardy Field in a private Gulfstream IV or owning a 10,000-square-foot vacation home, the town is offering absolution. Aspen this week became the first municipality in the nation to sell and manage carbon offsets, or voluntary cash contributions for alternative-energy projects to compensate for greenhouse-gas-generating energy use. "We're telling people what you should do is reduce your energy use and carbon as much as possible, and then for things that are out of your control ... that you should offset the rest," said Kim Peterson, the town's global-warming manager. Through the town's "Canary Tags" website (canarytags.com), residents and visitors can calculate their estimated carbon generation for air or auto travel - the latter based on distance and gas mileage - as well as for business and residential use, and purchase credits at $20 for each ton of carbon. While other cities encourage residents to buy credit from certified carbon traders for the energy they use, Aspen is unique in serving as its own broker, investing the money directly into local and regional programs such as a methane-recovery project at a Utah coal mine. "We're also looking at things like small hydroelectric projects, some wind projects, some energy efficiency and renewable energy for public buildings," Peterson said. Operating as a not-for-profit municipal enterprise, the Canary Tag program aims to apply 90 cents of every dollar to actual projects. By comparison, private carbon traders typically siphon off about 50 percent of carbon purchases in overhead. Carbon-offset programs have become the subject of debate, with critics contending that they are feel-good efforts that don't diminish energy consumption and that there are broad variations in carbon calculations and types of investments by different traders. "The worst of the carbon-offset programs resemble the Catholic Church's sale of indulgences back before the Reformation," Denis Hayes, the president of the Bullitt Foundation, an environmental grant-making group, told The New York Times recently. "Instead of reducing their carbon footprints," he said, "people take private jets and stretch limos, and then think they can buy an indulgence to forgive their sins." Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Stephen C. Nicholson Energy Independent Caroline 220 Yaple Rd. Berkshire NY 607-539-6923 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
