Today’s Calamity: Carbon Offsets Do Not Offset the Economic Pain of Cap and Trade
Nicolas Loris /
“There’s a point at which you’ve got to ask yourself, what are we doing here? What’s the point?”
That’s Elaine Kamarck, a former Clinton administration official and advisor to then-Vice President Gore, and she’s talking about the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill. In order to garner enough votes to pass the House of Representatives, policymakers made promises that have groups like Greenpeace questioning the environmental effectiveness of the bill.
One of the most contentious provisions in the bill is the use of carbon offsets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Offsets allow carbon-emitting businesses to pay others to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.