Many consumers are becoming more concerned about the environment and what individually they can do to help protect it. You may wish to consider purchasing renewable energy to replace or supplement all or part of the traditionally-sourced electricity you use.

Electricity throughout most of the U.S. is been generated primarily by nuclear energy and fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil. In a growing number of states, it is possible to purchase electricity produced from “renewable” sources such as wind, sun, (solar energy), water (hydropower) and plant waste (biomass) and a variety of “alternative” sources. Together, they can be considered a “green” source of power.

What Do the Terms “Renewable” and “Alternative” Energy Mean?

The terms “renewable” and “alternative” have emerged from this increased awareness, generally referring to energy sources that can be replenished naturally and release significantly less pollution – if any — pollution and waste into the environment.

“Alternative” sources of power, generally speaking, are not considered as clean as renewable sources are but still produce less harmful byproducts such as carbon emissions and particulate matter than fossil fueled sources. And, they leave no legacy of highly-radioactive used fuel rods from nuclear power plants and the risks to surrounding communities of storing those fuel rods at the reactor site. Electricity generating plants that rely on fossil fuels and nuclear energy pose certain operational risks one does not find with green power sources. The coal mining accidents in Appalachia and they lives lost there are a testament to what can and does go wrong.

How Does Green Power Work?

Green power is really a change in the way electricity is produced at a generation source, far before it reaches the point of consumption. There is no need to install any equipment or make any other physical changes to your property. Your electricity continues to be delivered to you over the electricity grid. The green power you purchase is simply put into the grid on your behalf in the form of a Renewable Energy Certificates, or “RECs.”

This illustrates how Renewable Energy Credits help pay for and thus incentivize cleaner sources of electric power. Credit: U.S. EPA's Green Power Partnership (http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/gpmarket/rec_chart.htm)

What is a REC (Renewable Energy Certificate)?

If you cannot generate electricity on your own using, for example, solar panels on your roof, RECS are the main way you can choose green power. They can come from clean sources throughout the nation, and can be combined with standard electricity. The federal government, through the Environmental Protection Agency, has developed a system to incentivize investments in renewable sources of electricity by issuing RECs.

A REC puts a dollar value on each unit of electricity that is generated using green sources. This dollar value becomes the Renewable Energy Certificate, which can then be used by renewable energy project developers to add value beyond what traditional fossil fuel- and nuclear energy-supplied power plants can offer. This enables renewable energy project developers to better compete in today’s energy markets.

As renewable generators produce electricity, they create one REC for every 1000 kilowatt-hours (or 1 megawatt-hour) of electricity placed on the grid. If the physical electricity and the associated RECs are sold to separate buyers, the electricity is no longer considered “renewable” or “green.” The REC product is what conveys the attributes and benefits of the renewable electricity, not the electricity itself. As a result, all renewable-based electricity generators connected to the power grid produce two distinct products:

1)       Physical electricity

2)       Renewable Energy Credits, or RECs

At the point of generation, both product components can be sold together or separately, as a bundled or unbundled product. In either case, the renewable generator feeds the physical electricity onto the electricity grid, where it mixes with electricity from other generation sources. Since electrons from all generation sources are indistinguishable, it is impossible to track the physical electrons from a specific point of generation to a specific point of use.

Why Choose “Green” Power?

Electricity from traditional, fossil fuel power plants is typically cheaper to purchase and supply, but its price does not account for the harmful impacts their operations and emissions have on the environment (e.g., air and water pollution) and human health (e.g., asthma and lung cancer) and worker safety. By purchasing green power, you are helping achieve a cleaner, healthier environment; improving America’s energy independence and reducing the known risks of accidents and waste storage that come with generating plants supply by fossil fuels and nuclear energy.

How Do I Choose Between Various Green Power Options?

Not all green power is the same. Know the differences between your options before you choose.

Sources of Green Power

Which kinds of green power are you interested in buying? Wind and solar energy are the two most typically purchased sources. Some energy suppliers also market alternative sources such as waste incineration and landfill gas. Each source of energy has different attributes you may want to consider.

Some sources, such as wind and solar, can be considered completely free of direct emissions. Others have minimal carbon emissions, but may produce other pollutants. Check the contents of the “renewable“, “green” and/or “alternative” power options before deciding what you want.

Certification and Verification

Some green energy products are independently certified and verified. Some are not.  Both types are available for purchase, so you should review products carefully.  For example, the non-profit Center for Resources Solutions runs an independent certification and verification program called Green-e Energy (online at http://www.green-e.org/getcert_re.shtml).

Green-e certified products meet certain green standards and are independently verified by a third party audit that ensures the integrity of the green product you are purchasing. The Green-e Energy product content label gives you certainty that the renewable energy that is being marketed to you is actually the renewable energy you are buying. You may wish to check to see whether the green energy product you are interested in purchasing is Green-e Energy certified, or certified and verified by another independent third party.

The Wall Street Journal has been slow to write about oil supplies (or lack thereof) for some time, so this is a big step.  The tone of the article seems accurate as well – no one is saying the world is running out of oil, but it sure might be running out of cheap oil.  And that means reconfiguring economies around new oil price paradigms.

Saudi Arabia Puts Efforts Into Tapping Heavy-Oil Deposits – WSJ.com.

Read the article…

PAUL WISEMAN

WASHINGTON, Apr. 6, 2011 (AP Online delivered by Newstex) –

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just when companies have finally stepped up hiring, rising oil prices are threatening to halt the U.S. economy’s gains.

Some economists are scaling back their estimates for growth this year, in part because flat wages have left households struggling to pay higher gasoline prices.

Oil has topped $108 a barrel, the highest price since 2008. Regular unleaded gasoline now goes for an average $3.69 a gallon, according to AAA’s daily fuel gauge survey, up 86 cents from a year ago.

The higher costs have been driven by unrest in Libya and other oil-producing Middle East countries, along with rising energy demand from a strengthening U.S. economy.

Airlines, shipping companies and other U.S. businesses have been squeezed. The rising prices are further straining an economy struggling with high unemployment and a depressed housing market.

“The surge in oil prices since the end of last year is already doing significant damage to the economy,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

Unlike other kinds of consumer spending, gasoline purchases provide less benefit for the U.S. economy. About half the revenue flows to oil exporting countries like Saudi Arabia and Canada, though U.S. oil companies and gasoline retailers also benefit.

For consumers, more expensive energy siphons away money that would otherwise be used for household purchases, from cars and furniture to clothing and vacations.

High energy prices are “putting a drain on consumer budgets,” says James Hamilton at the University of California, San Diego. “To the extent they’re having to spend more on gasoline, they have to make cutbacks elsewhere.”

Two-thirds of Americans say they expect rising gasoline prices to cause hardship for them or their families in the next six months, according to a new Associated Press-GfK Poll. The telephone poll conducted March 24-28 had a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

Seventy-one percent say they’re cutting back on other expenses to make up for higher pump prices. Sixty-four percent say they’re driving less. And 53 percent say they’re changing vacation plans to stay closer to home.

“I try to leave the car parked at home all day Saturday,” says Curt Lindsay, who commutes an hour each way to his job as a computer systems administrator outside Washington, D.C. “I’d rather not spend the money on gasoline.”

Since gasoline prices topped $3 a gallon, Lindsay has also been trying to drive more slowly to conserve fuel.

His co-worker Albert Zaza canceled family trips to New York and Boston after the cost of filling up his Honda CRV surged from $35 to $47. Zaza spends four to five hours in traffic each day and has to fill up every other day.

Rising fuel prices are pinching businesses too.

In Tipton, Iowa, Grasshopper Lawn Care is tacking 5 percent onto customers’ bills to compensate for higher fuel costs. The company has to buy more than 8,000 gallons of gasoline a year. It plans to keep the surcharge until gasoline prices dip back below $3 a gallon, owner Dan Kessler says.

The oil shock and global instability are diluting the benefits of an improving job market. The unemployment rate, though still high, is at a two-year low. And the economy has just produced the strongest two months of hiring since before the recession began.

Bernard Baumohl, chief economist at the Economic Outlook Group, has slashed his estimate for growth this year to 2.8 percent from 3.5 percent. In 20010, the economy grew 2.9 percent.

Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. After adjusting for inflation and for seasonal factors, consumers spent 0.3 percent more in February than in January.

But that’s unlikely to last. Gasoline prices are surging just as inflation-adjusted incomes are falling. More expensive gas is draining much of the cash Americans are receiving from a cut in Social Security taxes this year.

Zandi estimates that higher oil prices shaved 0.5 percentage point from growth in the January-March quarter. He predicts the economy grew 2.6 percent during the quarter.

If oil prices average $100 a barrel for the year, Zandi says, growth will be 0.3 percentage point lower than if prices had stayed at last year’s level — an average of less than $80 a barrel. A few months of $125-a-barrel oil would slash economic growth by a full percentage point, Zandi says. And a few months at $150 a barrel could push the economy back into recession.

Surging oil prices don’t hurt everybody in the United States. Oil companies, for example, stand to gain. In 2008, Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) earned $45 billion — a record for a U.S. company — after oil prices hit a record $150 a barrel.

Oil services companies such as Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL) , Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE:SLB) and Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE:BHI) also benefit as the oil industry rushes to find and produce more oil. And the products of biodiesel and other alternative energy companies become more competitive the higher oil prices go.

In a speech last week, Sandra Pianalto, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, offered hope that higher oil prices won’t persist long enough to do much damage.

“Large increases in food or energy prices tend to be temporary,” Pianalto said. “History shows that they are often followed by sharp declines.”

But Mark Pawlak, a market strategist at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, says he worries about a repeat of what happened to the economy last year: It built momentum at the start of 2010, only to stall in the face of a European debt crisis and a run-up in oil prices from February to April. ]]> http://energyliteracy.org/rising-oil-prices-beginning-to-hurt-economy.html/feed 0