Fair and balanced: New York Times prints a column promoting carbon markets; forgets to mention that the authors "are employed by Point Carbon, a division of Reuters devoted to growing the carbon market"

Carbon Profits Inc. – Errr, Reuters! |

Anyone looking at the state of carbon trading, which is collapsing, who comes away with the sense that this is just a growing pain on the way to a meaningful global system has to be suffering from a form of blindness. Consider the New York Times op-ed writers, Marton Kruppa and Andrew Allan, who do their utmost today to explain away five billion euros’ worth of fraud and other daunting problems with carbon markets. Reading their piece, one gets the sense that it’s fine, everything’s fine – better than fine!

Both Kruppa and Allan are listed as Reuters correspondents, which is technically true. What the Times could not find space to include is that they are employed by Point Carbon, a division of Reuters devoted to growing the carbon market and, once that takes place, profiting from it. That the good people at Point Carbon presume that such a profit motive is part of what’s known as “enlightened selfishness” does little to alter the simple fact that these “journalists” are employed by a company that has a vested interest in this story.

Carbon Trading May Be Ready for Its Next Act - NYTimes.com

the idea of buying and selling pollution remains attractive, as recent events in Australia show