TerraPass

Okay, so here's the quick version of follow-up on yesterday's last post:

TerraPass, it's something worth checking out. My brother spotted the TerraPass on the back window of my car while I was leaving after Christmas to head back north. It looks something like this:



A quick conversation followed between Matt, my mom and me about some specifics. One of the best questions was, "so... what do you get for the $$" which is a pretty good question.


The answer is that there are no tax benefits right now. There are no real perks except peace of mind, really and um... a cool doodad to stick on your car. But the general idea is that you can buy a patch and some credits that are supposed to counterbalance the amount of CO2 that your car emits in a year. TerraPass purchases the credits in a couple forms, details provided here. As I posted yesterday, there's a pretty comprehensive study of carbon offset providers available here. By comprehensive, I mean to say I still haven't read it because it's pretty long.

The long-and-short of this little post is that I'm happy with TerraPass, and somewhat happy with myself for getting one. I'm not posting to brag, but because I hope others might find the carbon offset idea appealing. After a couple years of not owning a car, I was thinking a lot as I went out to buy the one that I picked up this fall, and offsetting the emissions made me feel a little happier about the fact that I have chosen to live, for now, in a place where public transportation for work is just not possible.

All that said, if you have more details or want to weigh in, feel free. Until then, happy third day after Christmas. Ho ho ho.