Delta giving flight to voluntary carbon tax

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SCOTT JAGOW: It seems like every industry is trying to be greener, you know, with all the concern about global warming. Sometimes their ideas are substantial, other times, more symbolic. Jeremy Hobson tells us what one airline is doing.

JEREMY HOBSON: Pay a little extra and offset the trails of pollution planes leave behind in the sky.

Delta will become the first U.S. airline to offer this directly through their website.

Under the plan, passengers can fork over about $5 extra for a domestic roundtrip — $11 for international — and the airline will have trees planted to counter the carbon emissions.

Julia Bovey with the Natural Resources Defense Council says it’s a start.

JULIA BOVEY: Certainly one couldn’t call this a solution to global warming. We couldn’t just create pollution and plant more trees, that’s not gonna work. But as a last resort to offset the pollution that you can’t avoid emitting, it can be a good option.

But how many will pay for the option?

A recent survey says Americans feel global warming’s a major problem, but only one in three support higher fuel taxes.

Delta itself says it’s shooting for a passenger participation rate of just 2 to 5 percent.

In Washington, I’m Jeremy Hobson for Marketplace.