STEAMBOAT SPRINGS—Steamboat Springs may join a new state program designed help to Coloradans buy carbon offsets to counter greenhouse-gas pollution, and to make sure they really 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 location is meant to offset pollution produced in another.
But the credits are largely unregulated and carry little assurance that they’re performing 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.
Innis said the verification would probably be done by a third party. She likened it to the work that financial auditors do.
“They would issue a certification for our program if it meets all those standards. We’re going to sell carbon offsets to individuals, businesses and institutions who want to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions.”
Innis said Aspen is the Colorado Carbon Fund’s first community participant and has been selling state-approved carbon offsets through its Canary Initiative.
She said she recently met with officials of Steamboat Springs and Routt County to discuss energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives.
Innis said other possible community participants include Boulder, Denver, Durango, Eagle Valley, Fort Collins and Telluride.
Routt County has at least one energy-efficiency project underway: 165 solar panels on the roof of the Justice Center. The panels provide about 10 percent of the building’s power, building and plant director Tim Winter said.
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Information from: Steamboat Pilot & Today,
