STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Steamboat Springs might join a new state program designed to help Coloradans buy carbon offsets to counter greenhouse- gas pollution, and to make sure they get what they pay for.
Carbon offsets are credits that are supposed to support projects that reduce pollution elsewhere in the environment. Reducing pollution in one place is meant to offset pollution produced in another.
But the credits are largely unregulated and carry little assurance that they perform as advertised.
The Colorado Carbon Fund, part of the Governor’s Energy Office, is designed to help Colorado governments, businesses and individuals buy offsets, attract money to Colorado- based projects and verify that the money spent on offsets is being used as intended.
“We want to make sure Colorado consumers have a project available so they know where their money is going,” said Susan Innis, manager of the carbon fund. “In some cases, you might not know exactly how your money is being spent or what the environmental impacts are.”
The verification part of the program would include new standards backed up by audits and a certification process.
