Offsets | Grist

Hey, Look, a Forest!

Report: Forest conservation can be as reliable as other ways of reducing pollution 2
Posted 1 month ago Experts increasingly agree that pollution reductions from forest conservation are as easy or easier to track than those from other sources, such as energy.
Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act an improvement over House bill on offsets 0
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Not your daddy’s offsets 6
Posted 2 months ago
A new report, "Forging the Climate Consensus: Domestic and International Offsets" makes clear exactly how important a role high-quality offsets play in maintaining the integrity of climate legislation -- and how they could allow an international climate agreement to achieve far stronger emissions reductions targets than would otherwise be possible.
Boucher: "Industry needs and wants a bill to pass"

Could Waxman and Markey have used the EPA threat more effectively? 28
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Should Waxman and Markey have kicked off House climate bill negotiations with a stronger ask?

The bill they introduced was effectively the USCAP proposal, which already reflected years of negotiation and compromise. The idea was that the difficult work of negotiations had already been done -- enviros and business both on board! -- and it would be easy for conservative Dems (and a few Republicans) to sign off on it.

Of course that's not what has happened. Republicans are balking en masse. Conservative Dems have compromised the bill down further, and by all indications will further weaken it in the Senate. Could the bill have ended up in a stronger place if it had started in a stronger place?
NAM spam

National Association of Manufacturers claims climate bill would crush economy 6
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
In shocking news, water is still wet, the sky is still blue, and the National Association of Manufacturers is still predicting economic catastrophe if the United States acts against climate change. NAM, in partnership with the American Council for Capital Formation, released a new study on Wednesday of the climate and energy bill that the House passed in June.
Spray-and-trade

Can climate legislation survive the Senate Ag Committee’s embrace? 4
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Some have hoped that climate legislation would be strengthened in the Senate, but if the Agriculture Committee has any say, don't bet on it.
A shot in the farm

USDA study finds that climate bill will benefit farmers 1
Posted 4 months ago
The climate and energy legislation that the House passed in June would increase revenues for farmers, according to a preliminary analysis released by the USDA. Could the report help convince farm-state senators to back a climate bill?
Duelling diatribes

Hansen versus Romm 0
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
For all of Waxman-Markey's faults, I think it gets two things right: (1) allowance set-asides to fund tropical forest conservation, and (2) a meaningful price floor...However, they leave W-M with no coherent policy foundation, because its other regulatory mechanisms -- the cap, trading, economy-wide linkage, banking, borrowing, and offsets -- all operate to achieve the converse objective of minimizing costs within limits of a predetermined (and unsustainable) emission cap.
ACES and eights: dead planet's hand

American Clean Energy Security Act strengthens U.S. ability to sabotage international climate talks 1
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago
The Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy Security Act (ACES) won't cut emissions. It won't serve as a platform we can improve later anymore than the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) served as a foot in the door to improve our democracy when it promoted voter purges and Diebold electronic voting machines. But one last argument is left to supporters: we need to support ACES in order to improve America's negotiating position in Copenhagen.
Peterson’s Waxman-Markey amendment: the nitty gritty and what it means 6
Posted 4 months, 4 weeks ago
This morning the House Agriculture Committee released the 49-page Peterson amendment to the Waxman-Markey climate bill.
News of a compromise foretold

How bad is the Peterson-Waxman deal on climate legislation? 7
Posted 5 months ago
Surprising no one--but disappointing many--House energy chief Henry Waxman has caved in to the demands of the the agribusiness industry over the climate bill. How bad is it?
Bill they, or won't they?

Climate bill negotiations stall in House 35
Posted 5 months ago
Will there be a House vote next week on Waxman-Markey?
So Farm, So Good

Eight reasons for farmers to support global warming action 0
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago By Alexandra Kougentakis, Jake Caldwell
Offsets: Pissing the earth away 1
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago
More than 2 and half years ago I wrote:

"Mommy, where do carbon offsets come from?"

"Well, you see sweetheart, when a major polluter and a consultant love money very, very much, they express that love in a special way. Nine months later, the consultant produces an extremely large paper packet."

Offsets -- the idea that big corporations can pay someone else to cut emissions on their behalf -- still fails as badly today as when that was written.
Just the facts, ma'am

Everything you always wanted to know about the Waxman-Markey energy/climate bill—in bullet points 12
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
You keep hearing about the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill -- aka the American Clean Energy and Security Act -- but what's actually in it? We combed through the 946-page beast so you don't have to.
Cheerleading for Waxman-Markey — not! 3
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
I don’t see how giving a B- grade to the bill and asserting it has a small chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change qualifies as “uncritical enthusiastic support for somebody or something,” to use Encarta’s definition of “cheerleading.”
Clapping louder

Offsets are still counterfeit carbon credits 3
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
The arguments in favor of counterfeit carbon credits still fail no matter how often they are repeated. Here are some common talking points, and my replies.
Do the 2 billion offsets allowed in Waxman-Markey gut the emissions targets? Part 1 1
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
The flaw in the Waxman-Markey bill is not the too-many offsets that domestic polluters are (potentially) allowed to purchase in lieu of actually reducing their own emissions. The flaw in Waxman-Markey is the too-mild 2020 target — a 17% reduction from 2005 levels — which will be so easy to achieve with various low-cost clean energy strategies that it’s hard to see why polluters would avail themselves of the higher-cost offsets option.
How I learned to stop worrying and love Waxman-Markey, Part 2: In praise of domestic offsets 1
Posted 6 months, 1 week ago