I just got my bill from
EWEB this week and saw a brochure for its green power intitiative. I've signed up to pay one extra cent per kilowatt hour (which translates to about $7 per month in my case) to have "100% green power". Does this mean my energy is coming directly from photovoltaics and wind? Probably not. The idea is to directly finance sustainable, non-fossil fuel based energy. I asked the customer service folks if I was paying extra to support hydro (which I don't want to do) and they said that they weren't sure if energy was coming from "Fish-friendly" hydro or not, but it looked like it was mostly solar and wind. EWEB certifies that it's energy is green through a program called
renewable energy certificates by a third party,
Green-e.
How much of the cash is actually going toward green energy development? What kind of authority does Green-e have? I have no idea. It might be something to investigate further, but I'm willing to bet $7 a month that they're doing the right thing in the mean time.
Check out the
EPA's glossary of green power terms.
2 comments:
hi Matt-
I appreciate your attention to this issue and your support of renewable energy. For the record, Green-e is a voluntary (non-regulatory) program. By participating in Green-e, EWEB has agreed to meet Green-e's consumer protection and environmental standards, as well as submit to an annual audit. More info at www.green-e.org. Hope that info helps.
Dan Lieberman
Green-e Program Director
Center for Resource Solutions
Way cool. Super-way-cool to get feedback from the director!
It reminds me how I gave back a few tax dollars to help fund cleaner elections, and I similarly crossed my fingers it would actually be earmarked as such.
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