In the beautiful Garcia River Forest, Volkswagen is buying carbon emission offset credits to make sure that every plug-in E-Golf is carbon neutral for 36,000 miles or three years. We hear more about the program from VW’s Stuart Gardner and The Conservation Fund’s Alterra Hetzel. Now, why can't they do this with every car forever?
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ALTERRA HETZEL: We are standing in the Garcia River Forest, one of four northern California forests that The Conservation Fund owns and manages as both working forests and carbon offset projects.
STUART GARDNER: So one of the programs we have is partnering with 3Degrees, where we essentially have a car that's carbon neutral, where we give money to the forest to offset the carbon used in the production, the distribution, and the first three years of driving and charging the E-Golf.
ALTERRA HETZEL: That carbon financing is not only protecting these forests, it's providing a host of co-benefits for wildlife, biodiversity, threatened species like coho salmon, steelhead trout. We're also working with the local economy and the local community to ensure that infrastructure is in place that the community needs.
They're looking at about $4 million a year in economic benefits to the local community. So when somebody like Volkswagen comes in and says, we want to purchase a carbon offset, the ripple effect of that purchase goes so much beyond one metric ton of carbon.
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