Hey, look at what I just found...
Feeling REALLY guilty that your conspicuous consumption is killing Mother Earth?
Well there's now a credit card for you!
From the NY Times
"Feel guilty about fueling up that gas guzzler or buying that box of incandescent bulbs? Would you feel better if, instead of frequent flier miles or cash, your credit cards rewards program allowed you to offset your role in global warming?
For every $100 spent on an Earth Rewards Platinum MasterCard, G.E. offers $1 in carbon offsets.
General Electric is betting you will. Today, G.E. will introduce the GE Money Earth Rewards Platinum MasterCard, which allows cardholders to forgo a 1 percent cash rebate on purchases and earmark that amount for projects that reduce greenhouse gases. In months when they feel short of money, cardholders can opt to contribute half and take half in cash.
G.E. will keep a running tally of the amounts, and each Earth Day it will use the total to buy offsets of greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, GE gets to earn interest on money that it would have otherwise paid out to consumers. Smart for them!
The offsets will be purchased by GE AES Greenhouse Gas Services, a joint venture between GE Energy Financial Services and the AES Corporation, a power company.
G.E. has a commercial finance group that creates carbon offsets, a finance division that creates credit cards, and of course, Ecomagination, said Tom Gentile, chief marketing officer for GE Money, referring to G.E.s program to develop green products. We are in a perfect position to help people make a difference through their purchases.
Environmentalists are not quite as sure. Its ironic, said Michael J. Brune, executive director for the Rainforest Action Network. G.E. supplies parts for coal-fired plants, so its credit card offsets emissions it helps create.
Others worry about more direct conflicts of interest. At myearthrewards.com, the new cards Web site, consumers can calculate their carbon footprint and read tips for reducing it, like buying compact fluorescent light bulbs and energy-efficient appliances, items that G.E. sells.
Moreover, G.E. is a big player in carbon offset projects, both directly as an investor and indirectly as a manufacturer of wind turbines and other alternative energy devices.
Kevin Walsh, managing director of renewable energy for GE Energy Financial Services, said that G.E. is supporting only projects that have been certified by third parties to be effective and that would not have happened without carbon offsets.
The joint venture first will buy offsets from projects that capture methane from landfills and coal mines. Later, it will add reforestation and alternative energy projects. GE Moneys credit card is just one of many customers for our pipeline of projects, Mr. Walsh said.
The card will have no annual fee and will charge annual interest of 12.99 to 18.99 percent, depending on the cardholders credit history.
G.E. insists that even small purchases add up. Twenty-five cents or 1 percent of a $25 purchase can offset a months emissions from a refrigerator. If someone charges $750 each month, 1 percent would come to $90 for the year enough to offset air conditioning, driving and pretty much all of the activities that yield the 10 metric tons of greenhouse gases that G.E. says a consumer produces each year on average.
We are not sending a message that you can buy your way out of your environmental responsibility, said Lorraine Bolsinger, vice president of GE Ecomagination. Were offering another tool in the kit for reducing carbon footprints.
G.E. is keeping everything about the card as green as possible. It is spurning paper applications, insisting that people apply online or by phone. Although by law it must send paper bills when asked, it is encouraging cardholders to receive and pay their bills online. It plans no direct mail and will advertise on search engines like Google and on environmental sites like treehugger.com.
MasterCard, meanwhile, will sponsor the card on its Web site and may help G.E. set up arrangements to automatically pay recurring bills. They have a lot of options on the table, said Denise Walker, the executive who handles the G.E. account at MasterCard Worldwide.
The idea is not unique to G.E. There are similar credit cards available in some parts of Europe. Matt B. Arnold, a co-founder of Sustainable Finance, a consulting firm, said he knows of five small groups negotiating with banks to offer similar credit cards in the United States. G.E.s announcement will probably accelerate those projects, he said.
In May, a research group, Redefining Progress, formed a company called Cooler, which is to soon unveil climatecooler.com, a shopping site that has arranged for about 350 vendors, including Wal-Mart, to purchase carbon credits in amounts that offset the greenhouse gases resulting from the manufacture and use of items purchased through the site.
American Express may enter the fray, too. We are evaluating a number of opportunities, said Desiree Fish, an American Express spokeswoman. We will pick the one that resonates most with our customers.
Many environmentalists would prefer a card that rewards only the purchase of green products. But some welcome these cards for now. As Aron Cramer, the president of Business for Social Responsibility, put it, any effort that makes it easier for consumers to address climate change is a net positive.
Big question is, if these schmucks are "feeling short of cash" some months, WHY ARE THEY USING THE CREDIT CARD IN THE FIRST PLACE?
JESUS WHAT A SCAM!
