PG&E Funding Redwood Forest Restoration

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) seems to be on a very green-minded mission these days. In December, the California company announced it’s launch into wave power to help meet state renewable energy targets and last week announced a customer funded program to offset greenhouse gas emissions by restoring two California redwood forests.

Yes, this is the same PG&E that poisoned the water in Hinkley until Erin Brockovich stepped in to expose the environmental and social crimes, and Julia Roberts brought the fight to the big screen. It is hard to trust a corporation that has PG&E’s environmental and social track record.

Yet, here we are in 2008 and PG&E, like many other companies with questionable pasts, are tying their corporate identity to environmental stewardship.

PG&E’s ClimateSmart program will invest the money in restoration projects in the Garcia River Forest in Mendocino County and the Lompico Headwaters Forest in Santa Cruz County.

The “carbon offsets” are the first purchased by ClimateSmart, which allows PG&E customers to pay an extra fee to offset emissions from their electricity and gas usage.

More than 17,500 customers have enrolled in the program since it was launched in June, and the average residential customer pays less than $5 a month to participate. - San Francisco Gate

Supporting a forest restoration project involving some of the most majestic trees on the planet (to the tune of $2 million) is certainly not a bad thing. But money, in this case, is relative. PG&E has easily spent more than that on its newest greenwash-y ad campaign that is pouring over San Francisco in a deluge. Amanda Witherell over at GOOD Magazine has a great article on greenwashing that features some of PG&Es new advertising campaign in Green is the Color of Money. And letsgreenwashthiscity.org has the scoop on why PG&E is not green.

Via TreeHugger Via San Francisco Gate