Erica Gies’s Posts

• Money for Nuthin'?

  Offsets remain off-putting to many experts intent on curbing CO2 emissions 1

  Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago

  The massive climate and energy bill now working its way through Congress would create a multi-billion-dollar market in carbon offsets, giving owners of agricultural and forest land the opportunity to profit as companies seek to offset their carbon emissions. But what types of land management should qualify as an offset? How will an offset be measured and monitored? How often should offsets be reevaluated? Should environmental regulators or agriculture officials oversee the program?

• A win for the farm team

  Offsets and Big Ag: Does the climate bill give away too much to the farm sector? 1

  Posted 2 months, 4 weeks ago

  The compliance market for offsets proposed under Waxman-Markey would result in a major realignment in the types of offsets offered, shifting away from renewable energy to offsets derived largely from land use, land use change, and forestry projects.

• Cap and Carp

  Key to climate bill, offsets have plenty of critics 7

  Posted 2 months, 4 weeks ago

  The Waxman-Markey climate bill does not propose a pure cap-and-trade scheme. It's actually cap and trade and offset. Carbon offsets are controversial: Viewed by supporters as a way to control carbon costs under cap-and-trade, but decried by critics as a significant flaw that will undermine the overriding goal of lowering carbon emissions.

• So Long, Saturn

  I sold my car, and I couldn't be happier ... I think 20

  Posted 6 months ago

  The road from deciding to ditch your car to actually doing it can be bumpy -- find out how one urban driver navigated her way to auto-freedom.

• On Track Betting

  A journey on China's controversial new train to Tibet 6

  Posted 2 years, 8 months ago

  Each night, the Qinghai-Tibet train leaves Beijing at 9:30. A mere 48 hours later, it rolls into Lhasa, 2,525 miles away.

  

  Waiting to depart from Beijing.

  Photos: Erica Gies

  Shortly after 9 p.m. one warm night last fall, my travel companion and I raced through the sprawling West Beijing train station, weaving our way through a crush of humanity sitting on newspapers and bits of cardboard, eating cups of noodles while waiting for their own journeys. Winded, we boarded our soft sleeper car on Train 27 and made our way to… Read More

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