Don't Bet on Offsets

by A. C. THOMPSON & DUANE MOLES

[from the May 7, 2007 issue]

This story is part of the Center for Investigative Reporting's multimedia climate change investigation, which includes the documentary Hot Politics, airing on PBS's Frontline April 24, and at pbs.org/frontline

Tom Arnold, a self-described "environmental nerd from San Francisco," had a pair of gifts for many of the Hollywood celebrities at February's seventy-ninth Academy Awards show: a crystal raindrop tchotchke crafted by a Vermont glassblower, and with it a certificate for 100,000 pounds of carbon dioxide reductions.

Arnold runs TerraPass, a web-based startup company that bills itself as "a leading retailer of carbon offsets"--the latest trend in green marketing, aimed at affluent, eco-sensitive consumers eager to fight global warming. Criticism of the extravagant gift bags offered to Academy stars in years past--the free jewelry, high-end cosmetics and other expensive goodies created unexpected tax liabilities and unflattering press coverage--led to discontinuing the practice, until Arnold suggested a gift enabling those who are among our highest energy users to lighten their "carbon footprint."