Coyote Blog: More of the Carbon Offset Folly

A while back, in relation to a company called Terrapass that sells carbon offset certificates (or smugness coupons, as I called them) I observed:

My guess is that TerraPass, when it sells the electricity from these projects to customers, is selling it on the basis that it is earth-friendly and causes no CO2 emissions. This lack of emissions is likely part of the "bundle" sold to electricity customers. But note that this would be selling the same lack of emissions twice -- once to TerraPass certificate holders, and once to the electricity customers. I am sure they are both told they are avoiding X tons of emissions, but it is the same X tons, sold twice (at least).