Government Investigating Rampant Fraud in Carbon Offset Market: Man-Made Nonsense Market Preys on Those with a Guilty Conscience

A blind man could have seen this one coming from miles away.

A while back I railed against carbon "credits" and the emerging market as being under the control of unknown persons or corporations--some of whom are sworn enemies of the global warming crowd. It's now called the "carbon offset market" and did about $100 million in business last year. This market is expected to become a lot bigger in coming years.

Here's how it works in the simplest terms. The actual way that this works is much more complex, which is part of the problem. There is also a huge difference in the way that this is done between nations, between corporations, and between people (which I am focusing on).

A standard is established by law, or by some other means. Say for a person, it's a 50, which represents an "ideal" level for someone to minimize their "carbon footprint" (another piece of nonsense, but I digress).

Johnny Citizen discovers his number is a 65, and feels terrible about how he's contributing to global warming, and arranges to purchase 15 carbon credits from someone who has achieved a lower number than he has. In this way, Johnny achieves parity with the benchmark and the person who is doing a good job with minimizing their carbon footprint (%$@!) is rewarded monetarily.

See the problem?

Dishonest persons have managed to enter the market to engage in fraud and are now preying on those who have a guilty conscience. It's reached a level that the government is investigating the entire mess.

Because of lax verification of whether a trader is actually doing as well as he/she says they are, they can come in, and say "I scored a 35; I'll sell my available credits for, oh, say, $1,000 each." And people are paying at the rate that is proposed by the trader. Johnny would be better off taking his money and investing in solar panels, or a fuel-efficient hybrid car, or doing his stupid light bulb thing or planting trees to ease his impact on the environment and his guilty conscience. Or all of the above.

A man-made solution to a man-made problem that may or may not not exist. Sounds like trouble to me. And now the government is wasting more money investigating the entire thing to see if this unregulated market needs to be regulated.

If someone is bound and determined to use this market to accomplish their goal, then they have a responsibility to protect their own investment--by verifying that the trader they're doing business with isn't a flim-flam man or a Johnny-Come-Lately looking to make money and then depart the scene with someone else's money.

Stupid is as stupid does.