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Natives help green the Democratic National Convention (carbon credits)
Indian Country ^ | July 10, 2008

Posted on 07/21/2008 6:41:48 PM PDT by Shermy

DENVER - Planners of the Democratic National Convention are limiting the party's carbon footprint through a unique partnership with an Indian-focused environmental business.

The Democratic National Convention Committee began working with NativeEnergy Inc. this spring to purchase carbon offsets for the dozens of convention staff who are flying, driving and otherwise polluting Denver as they carry out the big event.

Party organizers are now asking that delegates, members of the media and other political officials who will be attending the late August gathering do the same.

Delegates to the convention with the highest percentage of members offsetting their carbon emissions will be recognized in their seating section on the floor of the Pepsi Center, the site of the first three days of the event. If they offset their travel, they are also expected to receive a ''green item'' to distinguish themselves during convention week.

The effort, called the Green Delegate Challenge, is intended to encourage friendly competition among state delegates and to offer special rewards for the delegation or delegations that show the highest level of commitment to offsetting their carbon footprints as a result of attending the Denver convention.

To date, the average carbon footprints of all delegates from California, Vermont and Nevada have been accounted for through delegate participation in the program.

The partnership is believed to be the first time that convention planners of any political stripe have teamed with a Native-focused business to purchase carbon offsets.

At a media preview of the convention site July 8, Democratic organizers said convention activities like air and ground travel, accommodations and waste will produce an average of 1 ton of CO2 pollution per person.

Leah Daughtry, CEO of the convention, said the partnership has helped the DNCC create ''a unique portfolio of carbon offset projects at special book rate prices.'' The discounted prices amount to an average of $12 per ton, which company officials said is the market rate for carbon credits.

NativeEnergy, based in Vermont, has become well-known in recent years for supporting American Indian, farmer-owned and community-based renewable energy projects that create social, economic and environmental benefits. The company has helped generate funds for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Wind Turbine; it also operates under a partnership with the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy and has some Native staff members.

''The relationship with the DNCC has been great,'' said Billy Connelly, marketing director of NativeEnergy. ''We have a tremendous amount of respect for what their officials have done here ... we hope it can be a model for conventions in the future.''

The offsets specific to the convention have resulted from a number of domestic community-based clean energy projects, including the Wray School District Wind Turbine in Wray, Colo. The utility-scale wind turbine at the site was built in January in reliance on exclusive carbon funding from NativeEnergy. Ten percent of the DNCC's carbon portfolio stems from this site.

Other sites that have created energy offsets in the DNCC's portfolio include the Hillcrest Saylor dairy farm methane project, located in Rockwood, Pa.; the Des Plaines Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project, located in Cook County, Ill.; and the Focus the Nation Wind Turbine at the Williamson Family Farm in Rosedell Township, Minn.

Connelly said he sees no reason for the support of carbon offsets to be partisan, although he said he wasn't aware of any similar efforts this year by the Republican National Convention Committee. Officials with the GOP group have said they are committed to environmental sustainability efforts, including emphasizing recycling at their own Minnesota convention in early September.

Members of Congress, including Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain, have expressed interest in creating a federally supported carbon cap and trade program to help give incentives to entities that employ carbon capture techniques.

American Indians and others who plan on attending the convention can purchase carbon credits under the DNCC's rate online at www.nativeenergy.com/pages/dncc/330.php?afc=DNCC.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Colorado
KEYWORDS: 2008dncconvention; americanindians; carboncredits; dncc; environment; enviroporfiteering; enviroprofiteering; greatcarbonscam; greens

1 posted on 07/21/2008 6:41:48 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: calcowgirl; xcamel

ccp


2 posted on 07/21/2008 6:42:24 PM PDT by Shermy ( Flobots, Handlebars, if that record isn't about Obama, who?)
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To: Shermy

Only liberals would believe the scam of carbon credits.


3 posted on 07/21/2008 6:43:01 PM PDT by Patrick1
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To: Shermy; OKSooner; honolulugal; Killing Time; Beowulf; Mr. Peabody; RW_Whacko; gruffwolf; ...
Watermelons:


GREEN on the outside, RED on the inside.

MoreOn POGW...

4 posted on 07/21/2008 6:43:16 PM PDT by xcamel (Being on the wrong track means the unintended consequences express train doesnt kill you going by)
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To: Patrick1

Some one needs to tell them to get their head out of their asses.


5 posted on 07/21/2008 6:43:57 PM PDT by snowman1 (SHAMNESTY.)
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To: Shermy

Just a total cesspool of stupidity and ignorance. It is what keeps liberals alive and destroying America at an unprecedented rate.


6 posted on 07/21/2008 6:44:07 PM PDT by EagleUSA
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To: Shermy

If I purchase a tomatoe plant, can I get a tax credit to offset the “wind” I just generated?

Just a thought, if the dairy in Rockport, PA is getting credit for their methane project, then why can’t we get some kind of credit for the...er...”gas” we all create? Gotta think on this a little more. There must be a angle here somewhere....


7 posted on 07/21/2008 6:50:49 PM PDT by oneamericanvoice (Support freedom! Support the troops! Surrender is not an option!)
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To: Shermy
OH!....I see the American Indians, Are going the be "Taken, for granted" again... any more $400,000+/- USD "donations" to the DNC?.... ala Klintoon.
8 posted on 07/21/2008 6:51:34 PM PDT by skinkinthegrass (If you aren't "advancing" your arguments,your losing "the battle of Ideas"...libs,hates the facts 8^)
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To: Shermy

A little bit of trivia. “Iron Eyes” Cody, whose crying Indian commercial helped kick off the “environmental movement” in this country, was actually an actor whose real name was Espera de Corti. He was the son of Antonio de Corti and Francesca Salpietra who moved to America from Sicily. The liberals’ envirogig has always been a fraud.


9 posted on 07/21/2008 6:51:50 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer ("The End Is Near!" - Algore)
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To: Shermy

“To date, the average carbon footprints of all delegates from California, Vermont and Nevada have been accounted for through delegate participation in the program.”

Which handily identifies those states as possessing the delegates who are the most gullible, ignorant and moronic.

Give them a prize.


10 posted on 07/21/2008 6:53:12 PM PDT by EyeGuy
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To: Shermy; According2RecentPollsAirIsGood; TenthAmendmentChampion; Horusra; CygnusXI; Entrepreneur; ...
 




Beam me to Planet Gore !

11 posted on 07/21/2008 6:57:20 PM PDT by steelyourfaith
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To: Shermy

Translation: Salve your conscience: bribe an Indian.


12 posted on 07/21/2008 6:59:31 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: xcamel

Hey what stops a guy, particularly a landscaper and nursery broker, from opening a carbon offset website? Although this isn’t the place to advertise. Maybe they’ll send me some cash and I’ll plant some trees.


13 posted on 07/21/2008 6:59:48 PM PDT by CIDKauf (No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.)
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To: Shermy

14 posted on 07/21/2008 7:01:36 PM PDT by VRWC For Truth (No mas Juan "Traitor Rat" McAmnesty)
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To: Cicero

and they’re fake Native Americans


15 posted on 07/21/2008 7:04:14 PM PDT by Shermy ( Flobots, Handlebars, if that record isn't about Obama, who?)
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To: EyeGuy

I am sorry to sound so stupid. I never thought I was this stupid, but I have no idea how much a “carbon credit cost”. Who do you pay this to. I asume you get something in return for paying for it. This whole concept me drives me crazy. Before I pay for a carbon credit, I want to know who and how much Al Gore pays for his.


16 posted on 07/21/2008 7:05:14 PM PDT by JBCiejka
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To: Cicero

“Translation: Salve your conscience: bribe an Indian.”

Perfect.

Particularly if they can rustle up some transgendered Injuns.


17 posted on 07/21/2008 7:06:29 PM PDT by EyeGuy
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To: Shermy
At a media preview of the convention site July 8, Democratic organizers said convention activities like air and ground travel, accommodations and waste will produce an average of 1 ton of CO2 pollution per person.

The discounted prices amount to an average of $12 per ton, which company officials said is the market rate for carbon credits.

twelve bucks will plant enough trees to offset the jet travel? Highly dubious, and I'm sure they have a much higher price for the rest of us when they get this passed.

18 posted on 07/21/2008 7:12:37 PM PDT by palmer (Tag lines are an extra $1)
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To: Shermy
The offsets specific to the convention have resulted from a number of domestic community-based clean energy projects, including the Wray School District Wind Turbine in Wray, Colo. The utility-scale wind turbine at the site was built in January in reliance on exclusive carbon funding from NativeEnergy.

Sounds good to me.

Sayyyyyy...wait a minute. How do we know this money isn't just going into somebody's pocket?

19 posted on 07/21/2008 7:14:29 PM PDT by Texas Eagle (Barack Obama is lika a bowl of chili - - he's full of beans.)
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To: JBCiejka

Somewhere, someone allegedly plants a tree. Undoubtedly a single, spindly sapling. This miraculous process allows the odiferous, thoroughly unaccomplished, greasy carcass of Al Gore to be transported, fully guilt-free, in air-conditioned, V8-powered SUV comfort.


20 posted on 07/21/2008 7:21:56 PM PDT by EyeGuy
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To: Shermy

From the article and the source of the article, it ALMOST sounds like this is a business run by Native Americans. WRONG! This company, as with may others, chooses to name and market itself as if it were owned, led or provided benefit to the Native peoples.

About as close as this company comes to providing a benefit to the Native populations is to loan them money to build alternative energy installations in their community. And, while the PR accounts don’t mention it, I have to believe that the loans must not meet the requirements of other lenders or those lenders (banks, government?) would have provided the funding. In addition, I would anticipate that due to the risk of non-standard loans, this company is probably getting a much higher return on it’s money in those settings compared with other investment options. So the funds from the Native populations get routed to an energy company in New England with a ‘native’ sounding name instead of being available for reinvestment in the local economies - because it’s not like those economies could use any further investment.

But, let’s just pretend that this is by/for the Native people and not ask questions. That’s what the headline reads - everything else is just fluff. Life is much more simple that way.


21 posted on 07/21/2008 7:24:56 PM PDT by Wills_Dad
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To: Shermy

SUCKERS


22 posted on 07/21/2008 7:40:10 PM PDT by A message
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To: Shermy

Hokum & Bunkum.


23 posted on 07/21/2008 7:44:29 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: EyeGuy

Al Gore is a contradiction.


24 posted on 07/21/2008 7:46:13 PM PDT by JBCiejka
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To: Shermy
So Democrats pollute by the thousands and then pay each other to feel better about it. Say three Hail Marys and $12 a ton.

And don't feel guilty about the ribeye and sea bass either, we carbon credited all that too. Your sins have been paid for.

You guys want change? Bend over. Here it comes.

25 posted on 07/21/2008 8:15:09 PM PDT by Sender (Never lose your ignorance; you can never regain it!)
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To: EyeGuy
So, if I have open land, I can set up a business whereby I can sell certificates certifying that for x dollars x number of trees will be planted?

If I wasn't concerned about the possibility that these types of arrangement could potentially (in a fit of sanity) be declared fraudulent - and but for that fact that I prefer not to knowingly rip people, no matter how stupid, off - I'd set myself up for some easy cash too!

And to sucker the DNC - precious.

26 posted on 07/21/2008 8:28:21 PM PDT by the anti-liberal (Write in: Fred Thompson)
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To: Shermy
DENVER - Planners of the Democratic National Convention are limiting the party's carbon footprint through a unique partnership with an Indian-focused environmental business.

For every $12 the Democrats donate, one Indian is killed, thereby saving one Indian's lifetime's worth of carbon emissions.

Carbon Credits are People!!!

27 posted on 07/21/2008 10:13:39 PM PDT by Always Right (Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?)
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To: Patrick1
Only liberals would believe the scam of carbon credits.

Then I guess McCain is a liberal, right?
28 posted on 07/23/2008 9:47:22 PM PDT by SoConPubbie (GOP: If you reward bad behavior all you get is more bad behavior.)
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To: VRWC For Truth

Exactly. Just another ponzi scheme to placate the masses while consolidating political power. It is a fraud through and through, just like social security set up by FDR. Anyone with a critical brain should be able to see through these power graps.


29 posted on 07/23/2008 9:52:35 PM PDT by OldCorps
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