Remember former Mayor Gavin Newsom’s triumphant declaration back in 2007 that the city’s departments would be the first in the nation to pay a local carbon tax for all official air travel? Didn’t think so. At any rate, John Upton does, and writes at SF Weekly that of the $200,000 the “carbon fund” has garnered five years later, little of it has been spent, and of the amount that has been, much of it, critics say, has gone for an environmentally-dubious purpose.
Two-thirds of the $15,000 spent so far went to subsidize biodiesel sold at a San Francisco gas station, something a Green Party activist tells Upton was “the worst way possible” to use the money because biodiesel is at best a “zero sum” fuel when it comes to climate change.
Image: Carbon fund kiosk at SFO, where passengers and others are invited to contribute to ex-mayor Newsom’s initiative/ Clean Technica
Environment,
Politics
