Some opportunities to be green and prosper are so extraordinary that I do a double-take. That’s exactly the opportunity I’m beholding in Global Emissions Exchange (GEX), the New Jersey-based carbon emissions exchange that lets everyday people & organizations, towns and government agencies earn money from our reductions in carbon emissions. It’s the first exchange of its kind that lets regular folks participate in something that typically only large corporations can.

I learned about eight-month old GEX only yesterday in The Record article by Hugh Morley. I had numerous follow-up questions so I had to speak with founder (and Closter resident) Philip Gotthelf on my own. I worked on Wall Street for 13 years, much of it on a trading floor, so my questions for Phil were targeted at how GEX works in practice for regular people. I learned that and much more about why NJ should be getting behind the GEX in a big way -- now.

The Opportunity For Us All

Picture this: You buy a CFL lightbulb, or an energy-efficient hot water heater for your home, or a Prius, or another purchase that saves energy. You’re already saving money over time because of the energy efficiency. But then you log-in to GEX’s website, input your proof of purchase, and you start accumulating points that you can redeem for dollars – even more savings above-and-beyond your savings from owning the energy-efficient stuff!

Now imagine 1000 people in your town doing this, or your small company, your non-profit, your municipal-owned buildings, or New Jersey government departments. Our energy efficient ways (which would already save us money and help the environment) add up to even more cash back in our pockets! The Global Emissions Exchange lets us get paid for saving money – paid for making our environment cleaner and more livable.

Why It Works

Global Emissions Exchange is sort of an intermediary exchange. It can pool together carbon emissions reductions from everyday people, firms and local governments so that carbon pounds add up to the tons required to trade on the big wholesale exchange called the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCE). The CCE works because governments are increasingly telling polluters (such as utilities) that they need to buy “carbon credits” for the right to pollute. The existence of a buyer results the carbon credit having a certain value on the CCE. So when Gotthelf’s NJ-based Global Emissions Exchange pools our carbon credits, it can sell them through the CCE, and then pay us!

All Gotthelf's company has to do – and it's very good at this part –- is show how much each of his clients (such as you and me) have cut our emissions. As I mentioned earlier, we first have to log-in our proof-of-purchase. Then Gotthelf’s company matches our increased energy efficiency with the exact utility type we’re using. If your utility is a dirty coal-fired electricity producer (rather than say a hydro-power utility), your emissions reductions are even greater when you screw in that CFL bulb, so you rack up even more carbon credit points.

How Much We’ll Earn

An average household can cut 2-3 tons of carbon emissions per year by becoming more energy efficient, which will save that household thousands of dollars (and the environment) – and then earn anywhere from $5 - $30/year on top of that by redeeming the carbon points it earned through the Global Emissions Exchange.

And we can do significantly better than that if we get our organizations and our municipalities involved, because they can save a lot more power than a single home, and can earn-back a lot more money if they participate in the Global Emissions Exchange. 1000 participating homes and several municipal departments could earn-back $25,000 pear year for a town, for instance. That money that take some pressure off property taxes, or add services. Gotthelf counts the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau and others as clients, and is talking with NJ towns such as Closter and Tenafly. He could be talking with many more, with help from GreenPoliticsNJ readers.

Get NJ State More Involved

An ideal scenario would be the State of New Jersey utilizing its home-grown resource that is the Global Emissions Exchange. Currently, state agencies are encouraged to reduce emissions, but aren’t systematically redeeming those emissions for dollars on markets such as GEX where those savings have a dollar value. A perfect avenue would be to add wording to NJ’s just-released Draft Global Warming Response Act Recommendation Report, the blueprint for NJ’s carbon-reduction goals. The public comment period for this Draft runs from Jan 6-16, an ideal time to add wording that NJ should “adopt the Global Emissions Exchange as a venue for transforming emissions reductions into state revenues.” What’s more, we can add to the Draft encouragement to PSE&G to buy its required carbon credits through the GEX, rather than buying its credits outside the United States.

The Timing is Perfect

The time is simply perfect to participate in the Global Emissions Exchange. Not only must we become more energy efficient and make the environment healthier, we also need the extra dollars during a recession. It’s even more than that, though. The best time to start registering your new energy efficiencies is soon, while you're still inefficient, because your reductions in carbon will be larger, and the value will be more.

Whether you plan to sign-up yourself or your organization with the Global Emissions Exchange, or contact your municipality (90 of which are already undertaking energy audits, and all of which want to save money), or urge Gov. Corzine to utilize GEX, the timing is simply perfect. If you'd like the email contact for Philip Gotthelf directly, please email me at joe@greenpoliticsnj.com.

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