Photo: Rebecca Key

 Well, of course, we don’t know if it’s going to be a slugfest, but Pacific Gas & Electric is holding a symposium on carbon offsets Thursday, June 28, that could be quite interesting.

On that day, PG&E will begin offering something akin to an indulgence for carbon emissions, dubbed ClimateSmart. Customers can volunteer to pay extra every month — about $4.13 for the average residential customer — to neutralize their carbon output.

PG&E will take the extra money you kick in and use it to plant trees and buy forests so the trees can’t be cut down. This system is what’s known as a carbon offset — you spend money to offset your use of energy. Some folks think this is a good idea and some folks go into a foaming rage whenever it’s mentioned.

As part of the kickoff, the utility is having a symposium, “Voluntary Carbon Offset Programs: A License to Pollute or a Climate Change Remedy?” All kinds of interesting folk, from environmentalist group the National Resources Defense Council to UC Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, will debate the question at The Golden Gate Club in the Presidio, 135 Fisher Loop, Presidio, San Francisco. Should be interesting!