So long to gas guzzler guilt

[420inTN]

Company allows drivers to pay for the smog they produce, then reduces it from other sources.

June 21, 2005; Posted: 12:16 p.m. EDT (1616 GMT)
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN/Money staff writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - For $160 you can turn a Hummer H2 into a zero-emissions vehicle. No tools or mechanical ability are required.

That's the promise of a California company called TerraPass. It would cost less, of course, to turn a Chevrolet Cobalt into zero-emissions vehicle. That would only be about $40.

The idea is the latest implementation in the trading of "pollution credits." Those are the market-based innovations, introduced a few years ago, which allow smoke-spewing companies to buy and sell the right to emit certain amounts of pollutants into the air.

The stickers TerraPass sends its customers do nothing to stop pollutants from coming out of a car's tailpipe. Instead, the company offers its customers the chance to reduce pollutants from other sources, like power plants, in an amount equivalent to that produced by their car.

more, full story here

[phantom power]

1. My question always is....

who is actually doing the reducing? And how do we know it's really happening?

[Kagemusha]

2. Well that's why Bush won't sign Kyoto.

In a nutshell that's it. Even if he believed in the goals, if you can't verify anything like this it's just a big scam, from an industrialist's point of view.

[PaulaFarrell]

4. I don't think that's why he didn't sign

I think he didn't sign because he doesn't give a shit about the environment. Whatever had been proposed he would have opposed. I always thought it was the US that insisted on the carbon trading credits, but I might be wrong.

[one_true_leroy]

3. do you mean to say you don't trust...

pollutors to clean up their pollution and not just take the money and run?!

it's a sad day!:sarcasm:

[420inTN]

5. As far as I know, no one is reducing...

However, it's quite possible that someone, somewhere, is reducing emissions.

[Barrett808]

9. The World Bank did a pilot project, claimed that it removed carbon

from the atmosphere. If you believe the World Bank, you could be encouraged that the carbon offset market will work.

[Miss Chybil]

6. And you can name your own star, too.

:crazy:

[sendero]

11. LOL...

.... yeah, copyrighted in book form :)

Color me more than skeptical. Anything that involves me throwing money at someone and getting nothing more than an oral promise leaves me cold.

I make an exception for political and charitable contributions, and that's it.

[not fooled]

7. remember, Armageddon is imminent...

...so why worry about trashing the planet?:eyes: :puke: :mad:

[meganmonkey]

8. It's like some wierd pyramid scheme

for pollution


:wtf:

[420inTN]

10. more like 3-card Monty n/t

[realFedUp]

12. So Californians are paying for Arnold's hummer?

We always knew that.

[Julius Civitatus]

13. It's silly. Those cars are still guzzling gas like there's no tomorrow

The headline is very misleading.

While this contraption may eliminate some of the emissions produced by these road monsters, there's a major issue at play that is not being addressed:

These cars are still consuming gas like crazy!

Anyone else paying attention to this?

[One_Life_To_Give]

14. Used by more Prius owners than Hummers

From the article it appears the majority of their clients drive fuel efficient economy cars to start with. People who drive Hummers don't feel any guilt about their environmental footprint. But apparently Prius drivers still feel guilty about using theirs.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

15. An emissions shell-game.

[420inTN]

16. pretty much. n/t

[ucmike]

17. another societal woe solved by stickers on cars.

i figure that most of our problems will be solved once all of our vehicles are covered in the appropriate stickers.