Both presidential candidates support mandates to force Americans to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, so it's one of the ironies of this campaign that neither Barack Obama nor John McCain specifically pays for carbon offsets.

Now someone has done the calculations for them and found out Obama has the bigger carbon footprint, at 77,894 tons of carbon emitted over the course of the campaign, compared to 58,786 for McCain.

By comparison the EPA says the average two-person household emits 5.5 tons a year.

I have reported in the past that other candidates — Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards, in particular — paid companies to offset their emissions. More than a year ago the McCain campaign promised a study to look at offsets, but has not taken steps. The Obama campaign has a list of steps it's taken to reduce emissions, but does not pay for offsets. The air charter company it uses does pay for offsets for flights.

— Stephen Dinan, national political correspondent, The Washington Times

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