Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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 Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 6:18 pm Post subject: The offside of carbon offsets |
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http://maxspeak.org/mt/archives/002245.html#more
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There is a beautifully simple conservation method to let you reduce your carbon emissions � simple, cheap, guiltless and useless.
The idea is that you pay other people to reduce their emissions enough to make up for yours � at an amazingly low rate. These are called �offsets�. $99 will buy offsets for a Ford Explorer for a year.
The reason this is so beautifully inexpensive is that no actual efficiency improvements or renewable generation is required. It is all done with word processing
Suppose you run a scrap steel furnace in a poor nation � an old fashioned Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) that has finally worn out. It won�t pay to do one more rebuild. You have cheap coal power in your neighborhood, so you decide to buy an Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) which will pay back the difference between it and another BOF very quickly indeed.
But you know, the coal burned to make electricity for your new furnace puts a lot less pollution (including carbon) in the air than your old direct coal burning BOF. Isn�t there some way to get paid for this? Why yes, indeedy. Pay a consultant certified by a major carbon market a hefty fee. He will produce a thorough and convincing report certifying that you could have gotten another ten years out of that old BOF; only carbon credits convinced you to switch to an EOF. The carbon market will certainly believe it, and they will issue a certificate. Voila! You created a new annual source of bouncing baby offsets to soothe the guilt liberal rock stars would otherwise feel as they travel in jet airlines and diesel buses.
�Mommy, where do carbon offsets come from?�
�Well, you see honey, when a major polluter and a consultant love money very much they express that love together in a very special way. And nine months later the consultant produces an extremely long piece of paper.� |
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