In terms of communities and government working on our energy future, New Rules Project - Democratic Energy1 reports that the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) last week announced that 610 projects have been given the authority to issue CREBs (Clean Renewable Energy Bonds).
State and local governments and municipal and cooperative utilities were eligible to apply… Of the approved projects for the governmental borrowers, 401 are for solar facilities, 99 for wind facilities, 23 for landfill gas facilities, eight for hydro power facilities and one for an open loop biomass facility. Of the projects approved for the cooperatives, 33 are for solar facilities, 13 for wind facilities, 13 for landfill gas facilities, 12 for open-loop biomass facilities, six for hydro power facilities and one for a refined coal production facility.
The hope is that such bond issues will help to finance renewable energy development across the country. I wonder whether such projects could also enter the carbon trading market, offering carbon offsets? With greater attention to global climate change and the impact of greenhouse gas emissions, more and more companies are looking for ways to offset emissions. By investing in an activity that demonstrates reduced emissions or an increasing in carbon dioxide absorption, the investing company can claim that they have "zeroed out" their carbon dioxide emissions and are "carbon neutral".