Already the Europeans are running a brisk trade in carbon off-sets, reports NPR, although there is little or no verification that the acts of penance are actually carried out as promised. There is a booming business there in brokerages that manage the deals to allow some pollution here if there is an equivalent green act or investment somewhere else.

Now the buyout shops that offered $32 billion for the Texas utility TXU are offering $30 million over five years to help pay for a program that pays companies buying vehicles with cleaner engines, reports the Associated Press. Local authorities have already rejected the deal as too little for the pollution the proposed coal-fired plants will create. And the state has yet to rule on the necessary permits.

Yet, here’s an opportunity to let market forces rule. At the moment all these decisions are made on an ad hoc basis by local authorities without regard to overall impact. A national market in carbon trading would do more than maintain the minimum standards of the Clean Air Act and help assess the real cost of pollution.

Of course, it won’t do anything to solve the problems that LS and Nevada Power are facing in White Pine County. The National Park Service has objected to the LS plant as too dirty for the Great Basin National Park and it may do the same for the proposed Nevada Power plant, reports the Review-Journal. Of course, they’ve moved up there, in part, to avoid the air quality issues that occur in urban areas but the park can’t use any carbon offsets that would ease the deal through the regulatory process.