Jonathan’s Recent Comments

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  The apples are blowin' in the wind

  This is a very carefully-written essay, intended to equate questioning RCE's methods with "faulty logic" and "dinosaur thinking". It should be preserved as a classic example of profit-oriented Green rhetoric. A non-savvy reader will walk away from it thinking that if he dares to question RCE's true intentions, he is no better than the fossil fuel companies.

  The semantics surrounding "it's not a donation" are downright ridiculous. People give money, and they don't get money/goods/services in return. They only give the money because they want to support a "good cause". That's a donation. It looks like RCE really had to pull out the unabridged dictionary to try to argue the technical definition of "donation" on that one.

  The crux issue that's really bothering everyone is this: Renewable Choice Energy refuses to disclose how much of this donation they keep for profit, and how much actually supports renewable energy.

  The folksy apple analogy is puerile and patronizing. When you pay for an apple, you know exactly how much "apple" you get. You can see it and weigh it and hold it in your hand.

  When you pay for a donation, you want to know how much "donation" you get, and how much gets skimmed off the top by a smooth-talking energy-broker. That this should be dismissed as "faulty logic" is truly insulting and duplicitous.

  All of the talk in the world about "conscious consumers" and "emerging responsibility" doesn't matter if RCE refuses to disclose how much of your donation they keep for profit.

  The assumption of good intentions is an easily-exploited weakness of the Green demographic. In this case, it appears that Renewable Choice Energy is taking advantage of that weakness for profit.
  On The producer of the controversial wind-credit cards speaks out posted 3 years ago 21 Responses

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  greed, not green

  A comment of mine was deleted from Shea's blog as well (Shea works for Renewable Choice Energy).

  It's extremely obvious that the cards are designed to mimic stored value cards. From the dollar amount printed on the card, to the fact that consumers are encouraged to "activate" the card: http://www.renewablechoice.com/windpowercard/index.php#pa... . The card itself is never "active", serves no purpose, and only exists to carry the ruse. Also, at my local Whole Foods in Boulder, Colorado, there was no explanatory poster, just a display of cards which the store clerk refused to allow me to photograph.

  Renewable Energy Credits, on their own, are legitimate, and not particularly difficult to understand. The Wikipedia entry offers a fine explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_Energy_Credits .

  What Renewable Choice Energy is doing is not legitimate.

  People hand over money, and receive nothing in return. That's a donation. The arguments I've seen against that have been very thin, and required creative interpretation of the technical definition of "donation".

  There's nothing wrong with making a donation, as people generally feel good about donating to a good cause. The problem is this: Renewable Choice Energy is a privately-held corporation that keeps a piece of that donation, and THEY REFUSE TO DISCLOSE HOW MUCH THEY KEEP.

  Large corporations such as Whole Foods support socially responsible causes because they benefit from the resultant reputation for social responsibility. In this case, it looks like Whole Foods is looking to "offset" the cost of that reputation by collecting money from its customers, and funneling it through a wealthy energy broker before it actually reaches the "good cause".

  The entire marketing scheme is manipulative and underhanded, and that's why it's igniting such a firestorm in the blogosphere.On Are the wind credit cards deceptive? posted 3 years ago 20 Responses