Subsidizing "good" energy in order to justify using "bad" energy is like eating salad in order to justify eating dessert. It is an exercise in self-deception....The Political Economy of Alternative Energy, Arnold Kling, TCS Daily, 3/9/2007\
Trading "carbon offsets" has always sounded a bit fishy, a variation of old economic games. Company A pours a hundred thousand tons of CO2 into the atmosphere a month, so, to get out from under having to buy a treatment system, it gives Company B a certain amount of money to buy a treatment system somewhere else. The idea is that the net effect is to reduce hydrocarbon emissions. But if it's a gigawatt powerplant in Los Angeles County, that doesn't do the residents of LA much good.
Arnold Kling's article in today's TCS Daily examines this with considerable precision. You would do well to look at it.
Luther
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