GM, US companies lead way on corporate carbon offsets

Lack of US regulation and the market

Tulauskas said that GM is thinking about the offset market in relation to the lack of current US climate regulations. “It’s uncertain. We’d like to have certainty, and I do anticipate that there will be carbon-related policies and regulations in the US,” he said.

Tom Rawls, vice president for sales and marketing with Vermont-based NativeEnergy, doesn’t see the offset market as being driven by concerns over future regulation.

“Most of the buyers are unlikely to be regulated entities in the future,” said. Rawls' company provides carbon offsets, renewable energy credits and other carbon management services for a variety of corporate clients – including Ben & Jerry’s, eBay, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Esurance and National Geographic.

“They aren’t utilities and many of them aren’t large manufacturers,” Rawls said. “A lot of the carbon they’re addressing is not likely to come under cap and trade. Cap and trade tends to go upstream and address emissions at the source. You’re talking about power plants, oil refineries, entities like that.”

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GM, US companies lead way on corporate carbon offsets

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