Related: I know a guy who works for a company that brokers environmental credits. Here’s the way it works. Suppose you own a factory and you want to expand into 10 acres of adjacent wetlands.
Oh noes! Those wetlands are protected. So here’s what you do. You go to a broker. The broker finds someone - maybe a farmer - with 10 acres of land that qualify as wetlands. The farmer agrees to register his 10 acres as protected wetlands. You pay him for doing that.
Now you can expand your factory. It’s all perfectly legal.
“It’s all perfectly legal.”
Reminds me of scamming my little Sister when we were kids:
“I’ll give you THREE shiny Pennies for that ONE tarnished Quarter...”
Once she figured it out, she ratted me out to Mom and that was the end of THAT!
Everything in Life seems to be a Shell Game until we FINALLY catch on, doesn’t it? ;)
It’s legal — and it’s also actually one of the “least bad” forms of regulation. At least, the factory gets built in the end. It’s not a “good” regulation, just less bad than most of the alternatives.
WTH has a factory next to wetlands?
The same thing seems to work for cities’ “tree banks” for developers.
Graft for all!
I have some property I would LEASE as wetlands for say 99 years with terms. Any takers? I’d even make them improved wetlands with a conservation easement.
I’m ready to get in on some of these scams.