Thanks for the point clarification, and it is an important one. Last Spring, as I was doing some research on RECs, I saw that TerraPass was open to comments and that is part of the reason I supported you all. So, tell me if I’ve got this straight, the difference between what you are doing now and what you were doing before is that people have a chance to comment on the development of new projects before you have committed to them?

Thanks for the thoughtful post. One small clarification — TerraPass instituted the policy of submitting projects for public comment about nine months ago, long before the recent FTC hearings. The policy is only being applied for the first time now as we build up our project pipeline for 2008, but it’s been in effect for a while.

We welcome the FTC’s efforts to improve consumer protection standards in the carbon offset industry (in fact, we requested their involvement prior to the current round of hearings), but in general our own internal quality standards are well ahead of any anticipated regulatory efforts, and we intend to continue innovating on this front.

Regards,

Adam Stein
Co-founder, TerraPass