CBO Report: Carbon offsets not perfect but can reduce costs
Reuters, New York – Carbon offsets could help slash costs in a U.S. market designed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, but questions linger about whether all of the mechanisms fully cut such pollution, a Congressional Budget Office report said.
Annual savings from offsets under the climate legislation passed by the House of Representatives could be 70 percent per year from 2012 to 2050, said the report from the CBO, which provides nonpartisan analyses to Congress on economic and budgetary issues.
“The cost savings to the economy generated by offsets could be substantial,” the report said. Offsets allow polluters like coal-burning power plants that would face regulation under a U.S. climate plan to invest in projects that aim to cut greenhouse gases when they determine it’s too expensive to cut their own pollution.
Such projects include burning methane, a potent greenhouse gas, given off by pits of rotting manure instead of letting it escape to the atmosphere, or storing carbon in soil and plants through agricultural practices such as no-till farming or planting trees.
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Tags: Carbon Offset, Carbon Trading Market
