A few days ago I commented that I did not believe I would feel any worse if a gun were pointed at my back when I have to pay for gasoline. I had watched gas prices jump 25 cents per gallon that weekend and now the “greedy (expletive deleted)” have added another dime. The government is adamant that there is no inflation ... and the power company is asking for how much more?
444
Does anyone remember a former U.S. senator who was a member of the board of directors and an attorney for Occidental Petroleum? I’ll give you hint. He taught law at Vanderbilt University and he was also the chairman of Island Creek Coal Company of Lexington, Ky. His son is a former vice-president of the United States who advocates a global warming theory. Yes the man was Sen. Albert Arnold “Al” Gore, Sr. of Granville, Tenn. The younger Gore is apparently against everything that helped his father become a very rich man, but obviously isn’t against being rich.
444
The Carbon Trade Exchange (CTX) is the world’s first global electronic platform for spot trading voluntary carbon credits. The mission of this exchange is to provide a trusted marketplace where businesses can buy emissions commodities supposedly with confidence in the quality and origin of the “products” being sold. The group makes the claim that their framework will provide transparency by tracking an offset from its generation and verification through to its transfer and eventual retirement.
This exchange is being promoted as a venue to help everybody from large corporations to small investors and right on down to individuals. Their claim: “We enable organizations of all sizes, from companies to charities to associations, to leverage their brands by encouraging their ‘clients’ to become carbon neutral by assessing their footprints and purchase credits via their own branded ‘Carbon Communities’ powered by CTX.”
I ran their handy dandy calculator and found that for about $40 a month I can feel better about those footprints. The organization also claims that they have several dynamic membership broker opportunities available, and CTX agents will be exposed to massive profit and growth potential, and great capital growth. Talk about making money out of thin air ... and I would have thought the goal was all about making the environment better. I’m puzzled and not so sure that I understand exactly what the organization’s primary goal is — making money or reducing carbon emissions?
444
There was another carbon credit exchange group waiting in the wings in Chicago promising to keep my boot soles clean so I don’t have to fret over those footprints. That institution was the Chicago Climate Exchange. The exchange had been around since 2003 but died last November when Republicans took over the U.S. Senate.
444
President Barack Obama served on the board of the Joyce Foundation from 1994 to 2002, when it issued start-up grants to the Chicago Climate Exchange. As president, cap-and-trade remains one of Obama’s highest priorities.
444
When the CCX closed Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management and Goldman Sachs were among the biggest losers. Cap and trade? That apparently may not be as dead as we might think. It may be hibernating and I guarantee you that if it is ever given any chance it will be bigger than Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Corruption?
444
These carbon credit exchanges claim that by paying somebody something we can get these energy credits to offset our carbon footprints. The last time I checked and saw what my carbon footprints were after I wiped my boots near a coal mine. I don’t mind trying to reduce my carbon footprint, but paying for something intangible and putting folks in the coal business out of business is not my idea of being responsible.
444
There you have it, a few comments on items of interest to the area. Have a blue sky day ... Seen on a bumper sticker “Prove you are against coal mining, turn off your electricity.”
Wilson Butt, a resident of Bluefield, is a retired Department of Highways official.
Columns
March 6, 2011
The economy of carbon footprints
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