Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Eager To Offset: A Case Study In Carbon Offset Forestry, Jason Smith

Honors Theses

"Eager to Offest" aims to look critically at whether businesses in general are engaging in carbon offset forestry as a genuine environmental service or as an investment opportunity benefiting little more than a group's environmental reputation. One industry which has engaged in carbon offset forestry as a part of the voluntary carbon market is the electric utility industry. PowerTree Carbon Company LLC was initiated in April 2004 for the purpose of reforesting 3,609 acres of bottomland hardwood forest in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Region in Arkansas and Louisiana. Twenty-five electric utilities have founded PowerTree as a limited liability company, jointly …