The Alaska Senate unanimously passed Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s bill to advance a carbon market in Alaska. SB 48, if passed by the House, would allow his administration to participate in the evolving carbon market.
SB 48 and its companion bill HB 49 establish a statewide carbon offset program through forest sequestration within the Department of Natural Resources. The proposed carbon offset program has the potential to generate additional revenue for the State of Alaska through biologic carbon storage projects that can offset a portion of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere.
The carbon offset program bill seeks to grant DNR the ability to establish a carbon offset program and enable carbon offset projects on state lands that are not going to be used of forestry anyway.
It’s novel, but not an entirely new concept in Alaska. In 2018, Sealaska Corp. launched a carbon-offset project that was the first in Alaska to take part in California’s cap-and-trade program. The project contributed to Sealaska’s biggest net income year on record.
Current statutes do not allow for carbon offset projects. The carbon offset program will allow private parties to lease state land to undertake carbon offset programs and allow the State, through DNR, to implement its own carbon offset projects, the governor’s office said.
Greenpeace called the carbon trading programs a scam.
“Since the oil industry — Shell, Chevron, and others — were not prepared to actually slow oil production to halt global heating, and since they had no intention of aiming for zero carbon emissions, they invented ‘net zero.’ The ‘net’ requires that we subtract some carbon from total emissions to create the illusion of “zero” emissions. Thus, the patriarchs of petroleum profiteering came up with ‘carbon capture,’ a deception that has netted them billions of dollars and euros in public money,” Greenpeace said.
But Global Market Insights says carbon credits are a growing market, sanctioned by governments across the world.
“Carbon capture and storage market exceeded $6 billion in 2022 and is projected to expand at more than 20% from 2023 to 2032,” the company reported.
“A steady rollout of strict government regulations to reduce GHG emissions worldwide is set to positively shape the industry scenario. For instance, in May 2022, the U.S. government invested $2.3 billion to cut carbon pollution in the country. Such proactive emission control initiatives are creating a strong impetus for innovations in the field of carbon capture technologies,” GMI said in its January report.
Oh good. All our problems are solved now that this incipit virtual signal is law.
Elect stupid people, get stupid government. And boy, did we.
Wait until this carbon credit trickles down to us.
Just like our fully restored PFD?
No. We don’t accept this magical thinking. Fight back. Or we are the cowardly worst.
More importantly: we make June Juneteenth and given all state workers the month off yet?
“……..Greenpeace called the carbon trading programs a scam………”
Well, then, I guess if the rainbow folks hate it, it must be a good thing.
Or, it’s so damn stupid even Greenpeace can tell.
masked avenger why do you think Dunleavey and his people are stupid. the environmentalist have been trying to sell these carbon things for years. i always thought what a scam , they were going to make alot of money. and our governor turned it around into a money maker for the state. and the sierra club is mad now. i tell you Dunleavey is just like trump he wins all the time and he is totally honest. sierra club will not allow us to cut a tree down here in southeast and masked avenger thinks Dunleavey is stupid . i don’t really know where masked guy lives but here in southeast it sometimes feels like republicans up north don’t really care about what happens down here but the governor seems to pay attention to what happens down here. we have to fight environmentalist and their democrat friends all the time. mike svenson
Because they are stupid. Profoundly.
And I refer to the governor as Spineless and the Cowardly Lion because he has earned it.
Any semblance of taking you seriously went out the window when you compared the Cowardly Lion to Trump. That’s ad stupid as saying the moon is made of green cheese and Mary P is a good representative.
I’ve said, so many times, I’m a Juneauite. But that bit of information requires reading comprehension skills.
BTW: are you out of grade school?
Your grammar, sentence structure, and syntax would embarrass an illegal just crossing the Mexican border.
Masked Avenger… Hey before you treat B too harshly I note the following error in your little pissy missive, “”that’s ad Stupid”… are you referring to advertisements? Please clarify.
Oh, and credit “b” this he at least had the guts to sign his name, Mike Svenson to his comment. What’s your name “Masked Avenger”? Are you too cowardly to reveal it? (cowardly lion), or are you a keyboard pussy?
Note that I signed my name to my comment, with my middle initial so you won’t confuse me with my Father or Son.
I agree Robert. Svensen’s core message is one of clarity and hope. I did not see anything critical in warrant retaliation from Masked. As to the governor’s plan, I have spoken to him personally about it. It’s his intent only to sell sequestration of timber in inaccessible mountain slopes that would never be logged anyway. Actually a smart business move by the gov selling to those stupid enough to pay the price…. although the buyers are not actually stupid; they gain from the deal. Its actually the gubment that’s the stupid one.
Thank you Robert and Wayne. I couldn’t agree more with your responses. Especially the part about people who are too cowardly to sign their real name.
Wayne,
You may fanboy the Cowardly Lion all you wish. He’s a failed governor who has folded like a cheap suit damn near every time he’s been tested.
Cathy Giessel broke him badly. Unmanned his politically.
Perhaps we have an age difference, but I see a man who is chasing the latest con (perhaps we’ll intentioned) and cons always collapse.
1- there is a difference between a spell check error and profoundly bad grammar. Seems you’re too dense to grasp that.
2-you’re attempting to shame me because I’m not stupid enough to use my real name? Really?
Excuse me, I’ll get back to you after I stop laughing at you. I’d not wait up if I were you!
And how do I know that’s your real name? Until I see your drivers license or passport, along with a corresponding utility bill to verify, you’re just as “real” as Bozo the Clown.
Son, you’re not smart enough to joust with me.
Dunleavy is nothing like Trump. He’s a coward. He caves at the first sign of opposition.
Wow hungry homeless people and we have billions to waste on something that won’t work. Climate change happens every day all day long.
Mark, got news…. if you gave a homeless person $1-billion, they would be homeless again in a few months.
Wayne
What I am saying is let’s piss away billions of dollars on another hare brained idea while we have more serious issues like homeless, hunger, crime and so on.
I understand your point. Consider using a better, more applicable, example of responsible spending. Like proper economic initiatives that give productive people hope for achieving their dreams rather than free money to encourage bad personal choices.
Well, it can’t evidently be ALL that bad if Greenpeace thinks it’s a scam.. Now, we’ll be hearing that spoil teenage brat from overseas ….screaming abit louder at us.. ugh.. I know there’s alot more to this then we’ve been told..
This is such crap. Soon, we will have to monitor our breathing to see how much CO2 we are breathing out and will be carrying around a plant to offset out breathing out. What a complete waste of time and energy. We could be building a rail road to the west coast of Alaska and opening up mineral development but NNNOOOOOOO, let get on the carbon credit bus so the federal government can print even more money to make my money worth less. This is representative of government going ape sh–.
Very apt points Robert. Well written.
Is this the same governor that complains about federal overreach on state lands?
Guess it’s okay to overreach so long as Juneau is getting payola for it.
Just how long will it take for the regulations to “evolve” to a point where no human, other than those licensed by the feds, will be allowed to visit, walk, recreate or even look at these sequestered lands? When it happens you can be sure that the state will be hooked on the money and will just roll over and show it’s belly to the feds.
Hush! Don’t you know Dunleavy is holy, infallible, and a modern day Jesus?
Policy based on the climate change hoax. Total scam. Shows that Dunleavy has assimilated into a politcal swamp creature. He’s now Alaska’s own AOC.
If a moron stands on the sidewalk handing out fistfuls of $100 bills to passers-by from a full bag of them, you will refuse a handful? If we don’t sell credits to the morons, Idaho, Montana, BC, Yukon will do so.
Yes and we want parts of the profits in our PFD fund.
It’s called “Mike’s ‘Nature’ Trick”.
30 A lease agreement under this section must include land use restrictions and authorizations
consistent with the carbon management purpose of the lease.
I guess you can’t kill logging if it’s already dead.
John Kerry, the nation’s climate czar and one of the smartest people currently in our government, said it best when giving a speech about climate change; “we have got to get the CO2 out of our atmosphere”. Apparently, this genius skipped class the day his general science teacher explained the basics of photosynthesis. Despite Kerry’s misunderstanding of the carbon cycle, efforts to reduce (but of course not eliminate) atmospheric CO2 levels by sequestering carbon are worthwhile in light of climate change forecasts. There are several ways to do this. One way is to propagate certain types of vegetation such as trees. We all know healthy trees absorb CO2 and give off oxygen. The carbon markets have recognized this as a benefit and are willing to pay owners of forest land when those owners are willing to agree, through contract, to not harvest blocks of timber for long periods of time. This is the program that Sealaska and other timber owning Alaska native corporations have used to obtain one-time payments. Foresters, when considering managing timber land regard the land the factory and the timber growing on that land as the inventory. Although a significant portion of the state’s timber is in terrible shape, health wise, for example in the Susitna Basin, the land, i.e., the factory, still has great potential to grow large volumes of valuable timber. Tying up large blocks of the state’s designated timberland for decades in return for onetime payments, shuttering the factories, needs a lot of consideration before that trigger gets pulled.
There are many ways to s
The idea behind selling carbon credits sequestration by locking up trees so these trees will Only healthy, growing trees
If you can’t log or mine because of all of these so-called environmentalists, then at least make some money by having to have it just sit there. Smart move by the gov. And if it is a growing thing, the state needs the money. As for Greenpeace and others not liking it, too bad. They have taken over dictatorial powers and should be ignored.
“Carbon offsets” are magical thinking like ” gender affirming care” for the deluded useful idiots.
The senate is awful. They are just making things worse.
All this money from the carbon offsets are ultimately paid for by taxpayers and consumers. There is a skim taken just like the mobsters did in the Vegas casinos. One more worthy question…if carbon dioxide is such a problem in the US, why are we letting in millions of illegal migrants? They all breath in our precious oxygen and exhale this killing gas.
Very good comments I am with you on this. The taxpayer will take it in the shorts and we have to cut more because of all the illegals.
So Conservatives generally dispute the idea of human-induced global warming, yet are keen to cash in on it as soon as they find a way to do so?
Alaskans are pathetically desperate for new sources of cash as their little petrostate dries up and The People clamor for ever-larger PFDs, while refusing to pay a penny in taxes.
Such hypocrisy. Such avarice.
What makes you think Dunleavy is a conservative? We conservatives do NOT support this.
Dog, please speak truthfully and accurately. The “petro….” is not “drying” up. It is being locked up. If we don’t cash in on stupidity, other states and provinces will do so while we stand on foolish principles.
When a business buys something, they expect to get something in return. Why would a business buy carbon credits? What benefit do they gain? It’s a fantasy. You can’t pay someone to remove carbon dioxide from the air. So what exactly would they be buying here?
Dunleavy is forgetting one thing. Carbon dioxide is a good thing.
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