Shell Energy cutting carbon emissions
Following a court decision in Texas, Shell Energy has agreed to commit over $100 million to improve the environmental impact of their operations in the state.
One of their facilities near Houston was cited for releasing toxic emissions into the air where it could harm the local population, which included a school.
In addition to the required fines, Shell pledged to spending millions of dollars on improvements to several aspects of their operations such as gas capture and monitoring.
The company also plans to improve the impact of transportation emissions associated with their trucks and shipping.
Shell recently invested in carbon credit projects.
Earlier this year they announced the purchase of 500,000 carbon credits to help account for the emissions of their facilities located in California.
California has begun regulating large emitters in the state requiring that they account for their annual emissions in order to achieve their emission reduction goal of 20% below 1990 levels by 2020.
Carbon credits are generated from approved project methodologies, including Forestry.
Forest carbon project provide revenue to landowners for allowing their forests to grow and store carbon emissions instead of cutting them down for timbering purposes.
(7/10/13)