In Texas there is an oil man. His name is T. Boone Pickens and he has pumped over 150 million barrels of oil.

Pickens is a wildcatter, but now his sights are set on something truly revolutionary: Wind Power.

Pickens says that the US is “the Saudi Arabia of wind power,” and that we could supply 20% of our electrical energy by the wind in ten short years. Also, we can develop clean burning natural gas as a domestic transportation fuel instead of sending away 700 billion dollars a year to pay for foreign oil.

By Picken’s calculations, we reached global peak oil in 2005. From here on, exploration and supply of conventional fossil fuels will lose pace with energy demand. The only way to keep up is to change-and fast! Check out the Pickens Plan for energy independence at their website, and watch the video below.

California state legislators appear likely to enact two bills aimed at creating stricter standards for the voluntary carbon offset market. One focuses on truth in advertising, the other on making tougher and more uniform certifications for projects, offset retailers and registries.

Is this simply another step in the maturation of the market? Or will it actually stunt the growth and development by imposing unnecessary regulation?

There has clearly been a backlash to the overnight boom of environmentally responsible consumer goods. Just when we’re getting used to buzzwords like sustainability and eco-friendly, others come along, such as green washing.

The potential pitfalls of the carbon market are enough to overwhelm even an educated consumer. How do can you know your offset won’t be sold again to someone else? Would the project you’re offsetting have happened anyway, even without your money? Transparency in advertising and certification are no doubt good things, especially when dealing with a relatively new product and uninformed buyers.

But this proposed legislation takes the responsibility of self-regulating away from the market just as it has begun to show the ability and maturity to do so. Despite the numerous certification standards currently out there, the 2008 report on the State of the Voluntary Carbon Market finds that consumers are learning to differentiate them in terms of quality.

Even more problematic is the language of the legislation. It outlines specific project types that meet the standards for credits. Forestry, methane capture and internal combustion reduction are mentioned. Projects which adversely impact “species, habitat, ecosystems, land use, biodiversity, air quality, water supply and quality, access to food or and production of food” won’t be eligible either. Whether inadvertently or not, setting that type of precedent will put a damper on the spirit of innovation that currently makes the carbon offset market exciting and ground breaking.

Yes, the voluntary carbon market is a little like the Wild West. It does need a healthy dose of transparency, and the buyer must always beware. But the market’s beauty has always been its ability to provide a free market solution that reduces carbon most efficiently by rewarding creativity and innovation. It’d be a shame to stifle that. Something about a baby and bath water comes to mind.

To learn more about the proposed bill, click here.