Karma, For Sale: Meet Renewable Energy Certificates

by
Scope Correspondent

The Altamont Pass east of San Francisco holds a surprise for the unsuspecting driver. One moment, the hills appear bare except for a grazing cow or two—then the road curves and the wind turbines come into sight. As a child, I was always awestruck by these windmills, spinning away in eerie, majestic unison.

The Altamont Pass Wind Farm in California. (Image from Wikimedia Commons)

They represent a tiny slice of the country’s wind power, which generates enough energy to fuel 11 million American homes every year. Windmills as a whole are also only one player in a larger team, which includes steaming geothermal plants, solar panels in fields and rooftops, hydropower and biomass plants, and other renewable sources. Together, these sources produce about 13% of the nation’s energy, converting the power of nature into electricity that can be funneled into a power grid and to our lights and devices. Full Article »