According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the SFO airport has now installed carbon offset purchase kiosks so that you can remove the guilt from your flight. Only one problem. The carbon offsets sold by kiosk sell at a rate that is about 60 times what carbon credits are actually selling for on the market now. There’s no frequent flyer polluter discount either.
Here’s what the kiosk start screen looks like according to the company website:
You can run the kiosk interactively yourself here. Let’s say you chose the “Use Typical Flight Distances” option. This is the screen you’d get:
If I chose the medium range flight at 2000 miles, the cost would be 11.44 for 1869 pounds of CO2 that is estimated to be emitted on my behalf. That works out to about $12.24 per ton of CO2.
Here’s the rub, you can buy a ton of carbon offset on the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) for 20 cents. That’s about 60 times less than what you would pay at the SFO kiosk!
Here’s the closing numbers from CCX yesterday:
From CCX: Price and volume reported in metric tons CO2. Change based on previous day’s closing price.
P.T. Barnum would be proud.
UPDATE: Maybe they set the price last year during early planning when carbon was at $7 per ton?
It appears there was a big selloff last Friday, when investors got wind of a major suspension by the UN before it hit the press. On Sept 11th, there were 292,500 transactions (largest in over a month) and the price fell from the previous day closing price of 25 cents:
The Sunday Times has the story:
The legitimacy of the $100 billion (£60 billion) carbon-trading market has been called into question after the world’s largest auditor of clean-energy projects was suspended by United Nations inspectors.
No wonder carbon offsets are falling to 20 cents a ton. Coal is still much more valuable at 40-50 dollars a ton.
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Anthony,
There appears to be no market for carbon at the moment at 20 cents per tonne.
We might as well call the price zero.
Dammit, I knew I should have invested in that company. Could have made a killing!
Papal indulgences relived!
What a scam! P.T. Barnum would be proud!
Does the airport kiosk include a confession booth?
I would really like to see their books.
Some one (Climate Passport?) is making a lot of money! Of course the SF area is prime territory for the global warming scam so lots of suckers will be handing over their dollars without cringing.
“A coin in the carbon coffer rings a soul from Carbon Purgatory Springs? ”
Trouble is we get no Sistine Chapel in the deal.Oh, Algore may get an engine
an Engine overhaul on the G-V….
Smug alert!…
This should make S.F. proud and our democratic congress more than happy. Although it looks way better than cap and tax as it is voluntary and is at a better ratio as there is no global warming.
Why does this market need a middle man? If one is going to give away money to a cause, why not just send the check straight to a favorite charity that promotes reforestation? The middle man is totally unnecessary here.
No regulatory system on earth can prevent financial abuse when trading in a commodity that isn’t real is permitted.
Amazing! This is just like buying an indulgence in the Middle Ages. In this case we seem to have changed one religion for another.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_pardon_for_sins_in_Medieval_Europe
tonyb
Surely that is a Scam and should be stopped? Plus presumably they get your credit card details?
Is it an Al Gore company?
REPLY: I’m unsure of the credit card issue, but like any transacting merchant, they must abide by the terms and service agreement of the credit card company as well as state and federal law. Let’s not jump to any conclusions beyond the overpriced cost per ton. – Anthony
“Here’s the rub, you can buy a ton of carbon offset on the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) for 20 cents. That’s about 60 times less than what you would pay at the SFO kiosk!”
Yeah, but when you get to Chicago, you can pay ANOTHER 20 cents on top of the 12 dollars you paid at the other kiosk.
That’s that new carbon indulgence refund they just invented : )
sure, they’re 60x the going rate…
but they come with EXTRA guilt transference!
there’s no business like showbusiness!!!
Now why didn’t we think of easy-access self-flagellation kiosks before? It’s an idea that just sells itself!
How much power do these consume?
Wow, a machine that takes people’s money and gives them absolutely nothing in return? And people put money in it?
Is this a great country or what?
I’d like to buy a few of these machines myself and put them out on the street. Anybody here know how much of a kickback the mob will demand? (I don’t want to get my knees broken.)
I don’t quite understand where the Chicago price comes from.
Look at :
http://www.pointcarbon.com/
The market price is 13.6 Euro per ton which is roughly 20 Dollars per ton.
I have 2,800 pounds of anthracite coal in my cellar that I use to heat my home for one year.
Now if the carbon offset people will buy it from me at about 60 cents a pound that will stop me from burning the coal and I can use the money to buy enough propane to heat my home for 3 years.
Are they offering franchises? Think of the possibilities!
Hey! This isn’t being run by ACORN, is it?
The “Where does the money go?” screen contains the following statement:
… as well as covering costs associated with locating, researching, and verifying high quality projects as well as the other general operating costs …
Translation: your money goes into our paychecks.
I wonder what percentage goes to the Garcia River Forest Project and what percentage is “overhead”. Many “do good” organizations that rely on donations have so much overhead that the bulk of donations go to fund the organization and only a small fraction goes to the actual cause. For example, less than 10% of donations to the March of Dimes goes to their cause. I wonder how well these folks do. I’m willing to bet not very well.
I’m all for it. People dumb enough to purchase carbon offsets are going to get fleeced some other way, so this is as good a scam as any.
I wouldn’t pay anyone 20¢ per ton unless they were willing to deliver it to my house.
A fool and his money are easily parted.
Where’s the product?
Where’s the service?
Is this a liscensed charity?