Tait Johnson's Profile

Offsetting as a Concept

With the debate on climate science effectively over in the US, the focus is shifting towards solutions. Most agree that putting a price on carbon will be at the heart of any successful strategy to reduce emissions. Unfortunately, the US Congress has yet to establish laws such as a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system that would make carbon pollution expensive and thereby limit its occurrence. In the absence of government regulation, public demand for action has put a value on efforts that go beyond business as usual to reduce emissions. When a third-party validates that a project – either through the production of clean, renewable energy or increased energy efficiency – has limited emissions, an emission reduction credit is generated that can be bought and sold on the open market. When an end user buys and permanently “retires” one of these credits (usually representing one metric ton of carbon dioxide reductions), an equivalent amount of that user’s carbon emissions are effectively neutralized. This, in a nutshell, is the practice of carbon offsetting.

A big 1,250 megawatt plant produces the equivalent of 250,000 tons of carbon
dioxide a year during its life, Dr. Fritsche says.

That's still much less than coal-fired power plants and natural-gas turbines. It even does better than solar power and small-scale
hydro projects.