FTC examines rights and wrongs of offsets

When you spend your cash, don’t you want to know where it goes? Asked the FCC this week. Greenbang would suggest her local might account for a not insignificant amount, but it’s not consumption but carbon the FTC is probing, according to the NYTimes.com.

It’s getting all good-cop-bad-cop on ‘green’ advertising, and is updating its Green Guides, which govern environmental claims in ads for the first time in a decade.

The FTC. has not accused anyone of wrongdoing — neither the providers of carbon offsets nor the consumer brands that sell them. But environmentalists say — and the FTC’s hearings suggest — that it is only a matter of time until the market faces greater scrutiny from the government or environmental organisations. […]

Carbon offsets are essentially promises to use money in a way that will reduce carbon emissions. Panelists at the FTC’s session on Tuesday raised a number of questions about certifications behind the claims, wondering if the offset companies might be double-counting carbon reductions that would have happened even without their efforts.