The Washington Post today revisits the Green the Capitol project today, this time taking a more critical look at the initiative’s carbon offset purchases.

Several months ago, we wrote:

Insofar as these funds and credits eventually find their way to supporting somebody’s new energy efficiency or renewable energy projects, all this is a good thing. We are all in this together, so it doesn’t matter who does the emissions reducing - just so long as the emissions are reduced somewhere on the planet.

Of course, paying somebody else to reduce their emissions does still tend to ring a little hollow if you haven’t taken at least the simple steps to reduce your emissions too.

The Green the Capitol certainly has embarked on many innovative and impressive initiatives to quickly make some long overdue upgrades to the Capitol complex - so the offsets they’ve purchased don’t ring hollow in this singular respect.

As the Post notes, however, that doesn’t get you off the hook. David Farenthold quotes consultant Mark Trexler to highlight an important element for credible offsets: “additionality.” In other words, “buying an offset must cause some new reduction in emissions that wouldn’t have happened if the money hadn’t been paid.”

In several distinct cases detailed by the article, it appears that the $89,000 worth of offsets purchased by the Capitol may not have had much “additionality” after all - instead allegedly going towards financing projects that had happened or were going to happen already. Joseph Romm of the Center for American Progress succinctly takes the Capitol’s offsets to task: “This is waste of taxpayer money.”

We remain of the opinion that the best path forward is making creative changes in Federal policy coupled with taking creative action to identify opportunities for more environmentally and economically sensible upgrades at home and at work.

We believe that the most overlooked aspect of any institutional effort to address a collective carbon footprint is the people who make up that institution. A very large share of electricity used in this country is used at home - piling on top of that used in the office, or in industry. So, the largest share of any community’s carbon footprint may yet be the energy use at home of the individuals who make up that community.

Any institution’s effort to address its carbon footprint is certainly incomplete unless that effort specifically helps the individuals who make up that community address their carbon footprint at home. With specific regard to the Capitol, we wrote in November:

We also suggest that perhaps the Congressional staff and interns are left out of the equation. Some of the country’s most talented public-minded young people take some of the country’s most underpaid positions as Congressional staffers. The Green the Capitol Office and individual House and Senate Offices could take some initiative to help these thousands of staffers upgrade their energy efficiency at home (i.e. when they’re not in the House - get it?) As you can see on our site, taking simple steps at home can really add up - both in cash in your pocket from energy bill savings, and greenhouse gas emissions out of our atmosphere. It’s at least as good a way - if not a better one - to achieve a carbon offset as purchasing offsets in Chicago.

What do you think? Let us know - and, if you agree, call your congressmen!

In the photo at the top: the Capitol building to the left and its own coal fired power plant to the right