Carbon Offsets–the notion that you can make up for your energy use by paying to sponsor environmentally beneficial projects–has been described as the modern equivalent of the indulgences rich people could buy from the church in medieval times. It looks like you can now get your sin and indulgence one one convenient bill:

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is holding an event today to launch a program that lets customers offset their household energy use by voluntarily paying extra for environmentally beneficial projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Customers can enroll in the utility’s ClimateSmart program, which helps figure the annual tonnage of carbon dioxide emissions related to the electricity use of a household or business. That carbon footprint can be offset, or neutralized, by paying a few dollars a month, PG&E says.

I certainly hope someone’s monitoring what the utility actually does with that money, and how much of it is swallowed up by “administrative costs.” Even if I believed in those offsets, I don’t think I’d be getting them from a company as venal and incompetent as PG&E.