Accountability: Utility Buys 'Verifiable' Carbon Offset Forest Credits While Groups Move to Boost Trust
Northern California utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company on Tuesday (Feb. 26) announced it had entered into a large carbon offset deal amounting to 214,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. A Wall Street Journal Web site reported the company was spending more than $2 million on the initiative, or about $10 per ton. The action was praised by officials as a needed example of a verifiable offset.
The announcement came on the same day as some groups called for greater accountability for offset programs, warning that bad press about them could harm legitimate reduction efforts. "Without credibility, it becomes a shell game," Janet Peace, senior economist of the nonprofit Pew Center on Global Climate Change, told a gathering at a conference in San Francisco. The conference, Carbon Forum America, drew more than 1,000 people from businesses, government and non-governmental organizations to discuss issues surrounding the burgeoning emissions trading market.
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