Gas Guzzlers Find Price of Forgiveness - New York Times

I expect Carbon offsets will be traded on ebay. This article on the New York Times will be available with free registration for a short while, after about a week they request a fee for archives. It is an interesting idea for organisations projecting a responsible image. The article notes that

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund bought offsets to cover the amount of pollution produced by all 1,479 people who attended conferences at its Pocantico Conference Center in Westchester County last year. Ben & Jerry's buys enough offsets to cover its manufacturing and retail operations, and even the Rolling Stones have bought offsets to make their concerts carbon neutral."

Gas Guzzlers Find Price of Forgiveness - New York Times: "To people who take the threat of global warming personally, driving a car that spews heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere can be a guilt trip.

But to help atone for that environmental sin, some drivers are turning to groups on the Internet that offer pain-free ways to assuage their guilt while promoting clean energy.

It involves buying something known as a carbon offset: a relatively inexpensive way to stimulate the production of clean electricity. Just go to one of several carbon-offset Web sites, calculate the amount of carbon dioxide produced when you drive, fly or otherwise burn fossil fuels, and then buy an offset that pays for an equivalent amount of clean energy."

Web sites like terrapass.com, carbonfund.org, nativeenergy.com and self.org focus on automobile emissions because drivers can become aware of their carbon footprint every time they fill up. An average car produces about 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.