{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-warren-lead-colleagues-in-urging-the-cftc-to-pursue-stronger-oversight-of-carbon-offsets-market", "Booker, Warren Lead Colleagues in Urging the CFTC to Pursue Stronger Oversight of Carbon Offsets Market", "2022-10-14", "2022", "2022-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "NJ", "Cory A. Booker", "B001288", "www.booker.senate.gov", "booker", "https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) led five colleagues in urging the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to take concrete steps to implement rules governing the voluntary carbon offsets market, also referred to as carbon credits.\n\nFacing pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to reach worldwide net-zero emissions by 2050, companies, investors, and governments have turned to a strategy of purchasing carbon offsets from organizations claiming to sequester greenhouse gasses through strategies like tree planting or installation of renewable energy. This has led to rapid growth of unregulated carbon markets that allow corporations to make claims about emission reductions and pledges to reach \u201cnet zero\u201d while actually taking little action to address the climate and environmental justice impacts of their industry.\n\n\u201cThe carbon market enables wealthy corporations and countries to continue polluting due to broad standards that ineffectively regulate what counts as an offset,\u201d wrote the Senators in a letter to CFTCChairman Rostin Behnam. \u201cCarbon offsets as they currently stand are not compatible with climate justice goals, as they enable wealthy corporations to continue emitting while using fraught tactics that prioritize their bottom line over the health and well-being of vulnerable communities.\n\n\u201cTo reduce risk to frontline communities, investors, and the planet, the CFTC should take concrete steps to implement rules governing the carbon market. These rules should include a clear definition of a carbon credit and a robust standard for auditing, and they must take into account the environmental justice risk of growth in the offset market,\u201d continued the Senators.\n\nIn the letter, the Senators urged the CFTC to:\n\nInvestigate the integrity of currently approved derivatives and their underlying carbon offsets, and develop qualifying standards for carbon offsets that effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions and can serve as underlying commodities for approved derivatives in the future.\n\nCreate a registration framework for offsets, offset brokers, and offset registries.\n\nPursue cases of individual project fraud.\n\nDevelop a working group to study both the risk to investors associated with carbon offsets and derivatives (legal, reputational, and regulatory) and the systemic climate financial risk created by their availability and usage.\n\nThe letter was cosigned by Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:20:33Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-warren-lead-colleagues-in-urging-the-cftc-to-pursue-stronger-oversight-of-carbon-offsets-market"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2651430442929268, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}