The Carbon-Neutral Hustle

So Al Gore gets nailed by some group who managed to get a hold of the energy bills for his Tennessee mansion. It turns out that he consumes more than 20 times what the average American household consumes. Last August he consumed twice as much in one month as the average house consumes in a year. Of course this makes for a rather inconvenient truth considering that he makes his living these days going around scolding other Americans for their extravagant energy consumption. To defend himself, Gore sends out spokesperson Kale Kreider who points out that Gore leads a “carbon-neutral lifestyle” and purchases enough energy from renewable sources to "balance 100% of his electricity costs."

Gore is not the first to trot out this defense when accused of hypocrisy (which is usually considered by liberals to be worse than murder.) This carbon credit thing comes in real handy at times. Flew your private jet across country to play golf? Purchase some carbon credits and you’re home free. It’s like it never happened. Buy some more and you can cancel out the all the carbon that your Hummer limo produces when you commute 50 miles a day. If you’re feeling especially noble, you can purchase enough carbon credits to give yourself a negative carbon footprint so that you are not only covering all your carbon, but also soaking up some that the guy down the street is spewing.

What, you say? You don’t quite understand how that works? Well that’s because it doesn’t. Energy consumption is not reduced at all. This is like putting eleven on the volume knob so you can be “one louder.” The only things that are reduced are your guilt and how much money you have. This is Pope Leo X selling indulgences. Yes, it’s a law of economics that people will tend to buy less of something at higher prices, and more of something at lower prices. That is the self-limiting role that prices play. YOU make the decision to buy less of something because while the price is high, you still need it. But what if you don’t really need it and are buying it for altruistic reasons? The price at which you buy less would be a lot lower I think. Not that I want one, but a universal individual cap on consumption is the only way this would work. After your nth ton of carbon we start taxing you.

The carbon credit system is an economic incentive to reduce carbon emissions. And economic incentives do have an effect on the way people behave. But as Al Gore demonstrates here, the desired effect is decidedly not achieved. Gore didn’t alter his lifestyle; he simply ponied up the “tax.” How is this any different than the rich guy who doesn’t care when gas goes to $4/gallon because he's got the money? Gore’s purchase of “renewable” energy would only be significant if he used it instead of the other energy, not in addition to. Some of the programs do things like plant trees to offset consumption, but wouldn’t those trees do a better job if you weren’t matching them up with new emissions? Those trees could scrub existing emissions instead of the stuff you just created.