Even under an RPS coal is going to be used unless the RPS mandate is set at 100% renewable energy. Under an RPS, more renewables will come online, but you won’t be able to tell who gets the renewable energy and who gets the coal energy. And even those that get the renewable stuff will still get coal energy mixed with it.

The way our power works is that even if some developer built a giant wind farm in your backyard, unless they tie the wind turbine transmision line direclty into your home you cannot say if you are getting renewable electricity from that wind farm. If its tied to the grid then it goes into the grid and mixes with coal, nukes, diesel, etc. Under an RPS all you can say is that somewhere someone is getting that electrcity. The good news is that we all benefit from that renewable generator. Thats all these certificates are trying to do to.

Take a look at some state RPS laws. As long as the certificates come from a certain nearby states then the law is met. You can get certificates from 5 or 6 states away, but as long as those states feed into the same grid then its deemed to work.

If you think these certificates are bogus or worthless then so is all the effort to pass a state or federal RPS.

If you support RPS legislation then it seems you should support these certificates. Just because an RPS is mandated by the government doesnt make it better.

Please reread what you posted “[renewable energy certificates] only signify that renewable energy was produced somewhere else”. Ok, but you are saying that renewable energy was produced I think thats all a certificate program is trying to: encourage and verify more renewable energy. As long as that renewable energy is in the US we all benefit. As long as its on the east coast, mid-atlantic, or south then Virginia is more likely to benefit.

There is more than one way to skin a cat. RPS does it through government. Couldnt it be possible that there is another way outside of our government that can co-exist with an RPS?

Better use of the money might be to start up a new savings account and start setting aside money to one day put solar panels up on the roof. Once you have the solar panels, you’ll know where the energy powering your home comes from. Of course you might still have to factor in just where the energy came from to produce the solar panels and just how much harm will be done to environment once the panels malfunction and need to be replaced.

I view this scheme about the same as I view the one where people try to offset their heavy carbon footprint by paying for a credit (promise) that a tree was planted in some far off third world country. No assurance that the tree isn’t just going to wither and die a few months after it was planted; even if it grows to maturity, it is eventually going to die, decompose and release the captured carbon back into the environment.