The following excerpt from Bloomberg.com misses the mark by failing to mention the real LOSERS in the ‘win:win’ financial equation described below. While it may be true that the liars AND the buyers make a ‘profit’ by distorting the facts in a Cap and Trade market, the true victims of the fraud are air breathers witnessing the ‘privatization’ of the air itself, the last great commons being destroyed before our eyes. That giant sucking noise you hear is the breath being ripped from our lungs. Nothing will be left unsoiled by the hand of corporate greed.
Carbon Credits at Work
‘Pseudo-Commodity’:
Joseph Mason, a banking professor at Louisiana State University who specializes in financial crises, says carbon is unique because it isn’t backed by a commodity such as gold or oil that can be seen and touched. Carbon credits get their value with people having faith in them, he says.
“We really are setting up a market from scratch here for this hybridized pseudo-commodity of our own making,” he says.
Anything that raises doubts about the integrity of emissions reductions could potentially damage the market, Mason says.
“If you’re selling oil, you’re actually transferring something tangible,” says Gregg Marland, a staff scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
“If somebody lies, somebody loses,” he says. “In a CO2 transaction, you can lie and both win.” The seller gets paid, and the buyer has his credit for compliance. “We’re going to create a situation where both sides can win by cheating,” Marland says.
