Baucus Pays to Offset Carbon Emissions

2007-10-09

Source: Roll Call

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) paid $1,152 in late September to offset the carbon emissions produced by one year's worth of air travel between Washington, D.C., and his home state, becoming the first Senator to do so, his office said.

The payment was made to NativeEnergy, a privately held American Indian company in Charlotte, Vt. (It is majority-owned by the International Council on Utility Policy, a non-profit organization of Great Plains Tribes). Baucus spokesman Barrett Kaiser said the Senator researched the industry and picked NativeEnergy over other companies offering similar services.

"NativeEnergy seemed the most credible and most professional, and most importantly, they reinvest in new energy projects," Kaiser said.

Companies that offer carbon offsetting services assist users in assessing their "carbon footprint," or the output of carbon dioxide pollution produced by activities such as car travel, air travel or powering an office. For example, the "travel calculator" on the NativeEnergy Web site estimates that driving from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles in a medium-size car would produce about 1.29 tons of carbon dioxide, while a one-way nonstop flight of the same distance would produce slightly less than one ton. In both cases, the cost to offset the carbon emissions comes to about $24.

The money paid to offset carbon emissions is used to fund renewable energy projects. In the case of NativeEnergy, these include wind farms and methane projects. One methane project, located on the Wanner family dairy farm in Narvon, Pa., produces power by feeding cow manure into an anaerobic digester; this power is dubbed "remooable energy" by NativeEnergy. The idea is that renewable energy produced by various energy projects will supplant fossil-fuel energy that emits carbon dioxide, and the resulting decrease in power-plant produced carbon dioxide offsets the output of the user's activities.

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