Manchester voters want to reduce town's pollution contribution

MANCHESTER, Vt. --Voters here want to do what they can to control their town's contribution to global climate change, but they say they want to achieve some measurable results.

So they decided at their annual town meeting to amend a proposal to buy so-called carbon offsets in favor of pursuing local energy efficiency initiatives.

People, businesses and other groups can buy carbon offsets at a price equal to the amount of global warming pollution they create. The money they pay for the offsets becomes an investment in renewable energy projects.

But Manchester voters decided they didn't want to send their money somewhere else to offset the town's use of fossil fuel to heat town buildings and operate town equipment.

"We already had money in our budgets to do a study about energy efficiency," said Select Board Chairman Ivan Beattie. "Energy efficiency and carbon offsets are two totally different things."

The goal of town meeting voters was to find a way of actually reducing the amount of carbon produced in Manchester, he said.

"We decided to use that money here locally to study how exactly we are emitting carbon and how to reduce the amount of carbon we are putting into the atmosphere," he said.