Comments ramsayhuntley has made
response from Carbonfund.org
My name is Ramsay and I'm the program coordinator for Carbonfund.org. We wanted to include our input here and we would welcome your feedback.
One of the key points that Gar has raised is renewable power, and wind in particular, would be profitable without selling green tags. We disagree with this. If this were the case, you'd expect renewable energy (and wind power especially since it's the most cost-effective clean technology) to be "business as usual", there would be a ceiling on electricity emissions, and a gradual reduction over time. We are very clearly not there yet. Wind energy, for instance, accounts for just 2% of the electric generation capacity added during the last decade, with most being coal and gas. And much of that was to meet state mandated Renewable Portfolio Standards. So, the portion of new capacity that is directly supported by the voluntary market is 1% or less - hardly business as usual.
Further, as the World Resources Institute notes in its "Corporate Guide to Green Power Markets":
The revenue from certificates typically covers at least the incremental cost of renewable power generation over conventional power generation. The sale of RECs to marketers or directly to customers provides the additional cash flow required for the renewable energy project to be financially viable over its lifetime.
By covering the incremental cost of the technology, RECs help consumers support the projects, technologies, locations and business plans that are most efficiently increasing renewable energy and reducing CO2 emissions and the premium needed "to be financially viable." For instance, wind costs less than solar, wind RECs in Kansas cost less than wind RECs in Seattle, big projects cost less than small.
Additionally, Gar says "(t)here is no way of ever knowing the actual emissions reduction compared to not subsidizing." We also disagree with this. Thanks to the EPA's eGrid program, the emissions factor for each grid is well known (to find out yours, visit EPA's eGrid program and plug in your zip code). When a zero-emissions generation source is used, it offsets the typical grid production which is what otherwise would be used. This is well understood, documented and accepted and is a main tenet of the Green-e program. This can all be certified and audited by a third party, and we would always recommend that you demand that third party certification.
Carbon offsets, just like green power offered to millions of people by their utilities, empower individuals and businesses to be part of transforming the market (and world) to clean technologies. We're excited to provide people the same opportunity to make a difference as Starbucks, the State of Pennsylvania, IBM, Whole Foods, US Air Force and thousands of other organizations are doing.
On At present, offsets are impossible to verify posted 2 years, 10 months ago 11 Responses