There's lots of talk these days about replacing gas appliances with electric ones, to help cut our use of fossil fuels that cause global warming. Gas companies have another idea - buy carbon offsets.
Piedmont Natural Gas and Dominion Energy both now offer carbon offsets in the Carolinas to help customers make up for carbon emissions in their daily activities.
A typical household can pay $3 to $12 a month to offset some or all of their emissions from gas-fired heat, hot water or cooking, says Piedmont President Sasha Weintraub.
“So we give you a calculator, some real generic numbers around how many blocks that you need to purchase to offset your carbon offset," he said, "You know, typically, we see four blocks can cover a typical residential home.”
Piedmont works with a vendor that lines up projects to reduce use of fossil fuels or pull carbon from the air. Right now these include planting trees in Tennessee, capturing landfill gas in central North Carolina, and generating natural gas from animal waste in Maryland.
Last year, more than 1,500 customers signed up in North Carolina, but that's still less than 1% of all customers.
Meanwhile, some scientists question whether these programs actually work. It's up to buyers to do their homework and decide if the projects fit their goals for fighting climate change.