Office Depot Announces Plan to Create Environmental Policy

Comments on “Office Depot Announces Plan to Create Environmental Policy”

1. Lisa M. January 9, 2009 at 12:00 am

   That’s an interesting idea. The average SUV driver does not pay for the carbon dioxide and other noxious gases spewed out of their tailpipe – they only pay for the cost of the gas! How the system could be monitored is a question. Would we “self report” our carbon usage? The real question is how to impute the “tailpipe” costs of our purchases back into the purchase pipe. For instance, SUV users should pay a pollution tax. People who make purchases wrapped in plastic bags should pay a recycle/cleanup fee. Similar to the deposits we pay on soft drink bottles and cans, the end use cost should be attached to the up front cost – then consumers will make the right choices because of the immediate effect on their pocket book.

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2. Jim Beacon January 10, 2009 at 12:00 am

   This is a terrible, Orwellian “Big Brother” idea. This is the kind of excessive control-freak concept that will cause people to rebel against carbon-reduction, and we want them to embrace it. We don’t have time and goodwill to waste pushing this sort of unacceptable government intrusion into people’s lives. Instead of the government spending huge amounts of time and money to monitor, enforce and allocate individuals carbon use, the government should spend the same time, money and enforcement efforts to entice/force the manufacture’s to build and sell truly *affordable* electric cars and generate clean green electricity for the nation’s power grid — and finally outlaw the use of crude oil in personal vehicles after they’ve provided viable, affordable alternatives. That’s the only path to a permanent solution to the greenhouse gas problem. And, anyway, just how does allowing rich people to buy up poor people’s carbon credits so they can keep on driving their big, polluting vehicles as much as they want do anything to solve global warming? The idea that it’s OK to continue to deliberate pollute so long as you can pay the fine is one of the most immoral, cynical ‘non solutions’ to the problem I have ever heard.

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