COLUMBUS, Ohio – One of the largest distributors of fossil fuel-based natural gas to Ohio homes wants to give customers the option to “offset” the carbon emitted by the gas they buy.to state regulators, Dominion Energy, which serves 1.2 million customers throughout eastern and northeastern Ohio via its subsidiary East Ohio Gas Company, would task its gas suppliers with planting trees or investing in renewables to balance out the carbon emissions of gas used by customers.
Dominion pitched the idea as a voluntary means for customers to reduce their carbon footprints. Customers would be able to choose from a range of suppliers, including a set that would take steps to offset their carbon emissions and those that would not. So far, Dominion has said it won’t charge customers extra for choosing suppliers that offset carbon emissions, but a final decision will rest with PUCO.
“The program that has been proposed by Dominion is basically one to deceive the public. I don’t know how else to put it,” he said. “The serious people about climate change are pretty rapidly moving away from using carbon offsets for making claims about carbon neutrality.” Regardless, Dominion and others have championed messaging around concepts like the use of “sustainable” natural gas. Ohio now legally recognizes natural gas as “green energy.”
Continuing to build more fossil fuel infrastructure with a 30- to 50-year return on investment instead of pivoting toward renewable sources, he said, will likely leave customers paying for vestigial pipelines and gas plants when an inevitable shift to renewables sets in.