Upsetting the Offset - Transnational Institute

Upsetting the Offset
Without foliage and natural layers of soil, the land is rendered unable to
retain water. As a result, floods have increased and their waters carry highly
toxic debris. For instance West Virginia resident Maria Gunnoe’s home sits
directly below a 10-story valley fill that contains two toxic ponds of coal mine
waste. Before mining began, Gunnoe’s property was not prone to flooding, but
since the mine became operational, her property has flooded seven times,
covering her land with toxic coal sludge. In 2007, Gunnoe and her colleagues at
the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC) won a federal lawsuit against
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that repealed mountaintop removal valley fill
permits in southern West Virginia granted without adequate environmental
consideration, and banned the issuance of new permits. But the Corps defied
the federal judge’s orders and granted permits to construct two new valley fills
above Gunnoe’s community. 32
Today, the battle over mountaintop removal continues. During his campaign
U.S. President Barack Obama expressed concern about mountaintop removal
projects. However, in late May 2009, the U.S.EPA stated that it would not block
42 of 48 mine projects under review, including some of the most controversial
mountaintop mines. 33 Obama has also been a proponent of so-called ‘clean’ coal
technology, which captures the carbon released by coal-fired power plants.
Importantly, however, this technology does not address the immediate dangers
of the mining process itself. In the meantime, thanks in part to the publicity
surrounding clean coal as a viable climate change solution, the coal industry
remains strong. In fact, international coal lobbyists are currently working to
establish clean coal projects as certified carbon reduction programs.
For the Mount Elgon community, the ramifications of carbon offsetting are
clear – the offset forest intensified existing land disputes and accelerated
displacement, violence and impoverishment among local villagers. Then, if we
then follow some of the offset credits generated by the project to their buyers,
we find Dutch energy companies whose energy portfolios include coal-fired
power plants. Pursuing the path of the credits even further, we arrive at the
Appalachian region of the U.S., which supplies the Netherlands with most of its
coal, at great cost to local communities. In sum, this example demonstrates how
the trail of carbon offsets–in this case, from Uganda to Appalachia – is lined
with threats to human rights to health, safety and well being.
Rural Sri Lanka/ The Pacific Northwestern United States
Another early offset project similarly exemplifies both the direct and indirect
ways in which offsets can violate the rights of everyday people. In the late
1990s, the U.S. state of Oregon instituted groundbreaking laws curtailing carbon
emissions. Around that time, the city of Klamath Falls proposed building a 500-
megawatt natural gas fired power station. But to comply with the new state laws,
the city would need to find a way to offset the greenhouse gases generated by
the plant. Eventually, local officials decided to partner with PacifiCorp Power
Marketing, Inc., (PPM), a non-regulated affiliate of energy giant, PacifiCorp.
PPM promised to spend $3.1 million on off-site carbon mitigation projects.
$500,000 of that went into a revolving loan program to equip remote
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