The Carbon Offset Scam

From Opinion Journal:

The Carbon Indulgence Scam (Financial Times)
"It's looking more and more like Enron. "Companies and individuals rushing to go green have been spending millions on 'carbon credit' projects that yield few if any environmental benefits," the Financial Times reports:

The growing political salience of environmental politics has sparked a "green gold rush," which has seen a dramatic expansion in the number of businesses offering both companies and individuals the chance to go "carbon neutral," offsetting their own energy use by buying carbon credits that cancel out their contribution to global warming.

The burgeoning regulated market for carbon credits is expected to more than double in size to about $68.2bn by 2010, with the unregulated voluntary sector rising to $4bn in the same period.

The FT investigation found:

• Widespread instances of people and organisations buying worthless credits that do not yield any reductions in carbon emissions.

• Industrial companies profiting from doing very little--or from gaining carbon credits on the basis of efficiency gains from which they have already benefited substantially.

• Brokers providing services of questionable or no value.

• A shortage of verification, making it difficult for buyers to assess the true value of carbon credits.

• Companies and individuals being charged over the odds for the private purchase of European Union carbon permits that have plummeted in value because they do not result in emissions cuts.