‘This Is A Total Scam’: That’s What Environmentalists Say About This Plan To Comply With California’s Cap-And-Trade Law

[Theo520]

Bad regulation often leads to unintended consequences

‘This Is A Total Scam’: That’s What Environmentalists Say About This Plan To Comply With California’s Cap-And-Trade Law

A Colorado-based company wants to make money flaring methane from Utah coal to generate environmental credits that would be sold to other companies looking to comply with California’s cap-and-trade system.

Confused yet? This is the type of convoluted project incentivized by Golden State global warming policies.

The Colorado-based Global Carbon Strategies’s plan to burn off methane vented from the West Ridge coal mine in Utah, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. The company would flare up to 400,000 million British thermal units over the next five years and sell the emissions “offsets” to California companies. The project has yet to be approved by state regulators.

Coal mines, like West Ridge, sit atop methane pockets that are vented out of the mine for safety reasons. Methane is a 25-times more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas regulated under California’s cap-and-trade system.

Here’s where it gets a little confusing. California’s cap-and-trade program to fight global warming could allow companies to burn off methane to instead emit carbon dioxide and a slew of traditional air pollutants.

Since the net greenhouse gas emissions from flaring are less, it counts as a carbon offset. Global Carbon Strategies can then sell those offsets to California companies forced to buy them under state law.

“Instead of just venting methane, we are spending money to generate offsets,” Global Carbon Strategies vice president Collon Kennedy told The Tribune. “It’s a pro-business thing. Instead of a regulatory requirement, we are giving you an economic incentive.”

Still confused?

Think of it this way. California is basically subsidizing a company to burn off methane while producing no energy whatsoever.
. . .

 

[Catholic1954]

And they wonder why we are called the Land of Fruits and Nuts. :whacky:

 

[Tim_D]

Ah yes, carbon offsets…the next boon for making money.

 

[StephieNorthCo]

And they wonder why we are called the Land of Fruits and Nuts. :whacky:

The full (or is that fool?) title is The Cereal State… the land of the fruits and nuts, mixed in with the flakes.

Blessings,
Stephie

 

[po18guy]

OK, so if the legal compliance is a ‘scam’, the law itself must be pretty stupid…