Betty’s Biodiesel Blog

I just sent a letter to the U.S. EPA asking the agency to allow California and 16 others states to implement higher auto emissions standards. These states are ready to take action now to reduce the pollutants linked to global warming and breast cancer — but the EPA won’t let them.

I encourage you to ask the EPA to reconsider its denial to the states. It’s in the best interest of our health and our environment.

Write to the EPA at http://www.breastcancerfund.org/emissions.

Here is what I added. A bit of a diatribe but has some truth aspects to it.

The EPA is our governmental body that is set up by the people for the people and the people want more efficiency, if not for the environment and the people that live within it but for the US to be able to compete in the global car market. The rest of the world is increasing efficiency and making us look like idiots with our cheap gas and low MPG and by the way they are selling these cars like crazy, just take one look at the Prius…it’s everywhere. This is a sign that people want it and the more the EPA (our protective agency) says no the more you look connected or “in bed” with the large corporations.

I am frustrated that my tax money goes to the salaries of the people that work for the EPA making these kind of bad decisions. Besides the way it is set up it’s like the state of CA (the kid in this story) is having to ask the EPA (the authority) for a hall pass. This is bad parenting and needs to be redirected to YES WE WILL ALLOW YOU CA (the Kid) TO DO WHAT YOU WANT WITH YOUR STATE.

I’m curious, how does the oilagarchy feel about CA, the 5th largest economy in the world, wanting to make a move that would help the people and the environment and cut into their profits…but then again isn’t that what the “no” is about. Keep digging deep for the reality of things and make your move for the people and planet leaving profit last for a change.

I wish to start this blog off with a story:
Once upon a time in 2000, I was told that Shaklee, the company my Mom had a business with, was providing these things called offsets. I was somewhat aware of the earths crisis and became intrigued by this offset where you enter in the amount of miles I drove, miles I flew, and amount of energy I used in the home. After calculating these amounts up popped an image of about 40 trees that needed to be planted to offset my carbon as well as a price tag of $80 needed to make that tree planting project work. I paid $40 for half of the trees since I was about to be a student and money was tight but felt good knowing that I could make a difference with the energy I had emitted from my around the world travels via airplane. I was hooked and then Shaklee took the calculator away from the site and I was left wondering if that kind of service would come back again. In 2003, I learned of Bonneville Foundation and was happy to see “green Tags” making a way into the market so I bought some more of those, got my sticker and went happily on my way of still driving my car which was now running on biodiesel. Now in 2007 there are dozens of way to offset, people driving around with bumper sticker and license plate covers that all say something to the effect of this car is climate neutral or green house gas neutral. These dozen green tag/carbon offset companies are connecting the funds generated from these tags to wind, solar, methane recovery and tree projects to continue the race to reverse climate change. You can even offset your flying miles directly with Travelocity. Unfortunately the political leadership is frozen in an ice age of stupidity till November 2008 unless congress can change that.
Now enter my dear green friends who when bringing up this concept of Carbon offsets complain that they are just a lazy approach to this problem. I completely agree that we do need massive conservation effort and we’ve been getting this message from the environmental community right along with the message of buying a new car. The way I see it is this, if people are driving around and aren’t paying for it via offsets isn’t that like saying the price we give on the environment is $0.00? I also know that if people really understand what they are using individually they have a better chance of making changes. Meanwhile, when they pay $28 for a carbon offset (the price of my car running on 40 mpg for 10K miles) instead of $0 that money goes to make these carbon reducing projects happen. These projects include: Solar, wind, methane recovery and tree planting to name a few and the numerous offset companies are providing us all an opportunity to do something with our use and abuse.

So now this industry is gaining momentum but it is still going through growing pains including:
- education of what a carbon offset is
- every offset company offers a different fee for the credits
- 3rd party certification is crucial for the integrity of these credits and is unfortunately getting overlooked by some people buying credits.
- Terminology needs to be clearly defined for the lay person
Etc.
No industry before has come close to directly linking our economic system to our ecological life support system, aka Earth. I was reminded by Lynn Twist (guru of fundraiser from the heart), that humans were the life forms that created this money in the first place to help a very complex system of trading goods and services, however the intent of making our lives more simple got off track somewhere along that path thus we have an imbalance of priorities and the way money works for us.

I am passionate about our environment getting a price tag on it. I feel it is both necessary and nauseating at the same time. As a long time capitalist, I can see our human need to maintain the status quo by not attacking the very system that drove us to this place of utter earth abuse. As a human it is ludicrous to place a price tag on our life support system…money shouldn’t be involved. But where to go from here?

I say reduce your driving, by carpooling, taking transit, riding a bike, walking, etc. and when you can’t or won’t, buy offsets to invest in a different future. The more voluntary offsets are purchased the more carbon and methane recovery projects occur, the less greenhouse gas emissions enter our atmosphere and louder the message of people investing in change reaches our leaders of this nation and the world.