Gerard and City Council Attempt to Claim Champaign Runs on Green Energy

Don Gerard and the rest of the City Council of Champaign, Illinois have decided that we are better off using a plan from a provider with 100% REC (Renewable Energy Credits) than one with a 12% REC’s and a resident option to opt-in for the more renewable energy credits. 

According to an article by Patrick Wade in The Champaign News Gazette, “The city has also purchased 100 percent renewable energy. Mayor Don Gerard said the program is an "outstanding opportunity" to save money and use renewable resources.” Unfortunately, Wade is wrong on the city purchasing 100 percent renewable energy.  They purchased 100 percent renewable credits which is not the same thing.

According to Ameren Illinois, the producer of the energy used by the City of Champaign, Coal fired was 75% of the production, nuclear was 14%. Wind was 4%, hydro was 1% and there was zero percent of solar. That is a long way away from 100 percent green energy Mr. Mayor. Ameren simply doesn’t produce enough green energy to provide it. As always, despite the City Council’s claims, Champaign will be mostly powered by coal.

To Mayor Gerard’s defense, he has bought into the liberal idea of “green energy.” What the city is trying to get you to do is to purchase Renewable Energy Credits. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency website, “A REC (pronounced: rěk) represents the property rights to the environmental, social, and other non-power qualities of renewable electricity generation. A REC, and its associated attributes and benefits, can be sold separately from the underlying physical electricity associated with a renewable-based generation source." 

So basically, we are not buying green energy production but a representation of one REC to a 1000 kilowatt hour of electricity being placed on the grid.  That all sounds great until you realize that the cost to produce a 1000 kilowatts is much higher than the amount to purchase 1 REC. 

Complicating matters further, not all REC’s are created equal says Think Progress.org website blogger Auden Schendler, who states that many of the REC are from already established wind producers and do not actually reduce any emissions. He argues that “forward REC’s” which cost much more environmentally friendly as they actually work to create new green energy.  Since the cost is 4.15 per kilowatt hour for 100 percent REC’s as opposed to 4.07 cents for 12% green renewable energy credits, it is obviously just commodities not new green energy credits that Champaign residents will be buying. 

In addressing a similar situation with his college students paying fees to purchase these REC’s, Daniel Press, professor at UC-Santa Barbara in this article states,

But prices for renewable energy certificates, as negotiated by brokers and power producers, are very low — 10 percent of the difference between the cost of producing nonrenewable and renewable energy, and far too little to actually spur production.

By harnessing the power of the word “renewable” for spin and gimmickry, certificate brokers have persuaded hundreds of colleges to buy the “environmental attributes” of wind, landfill gas and solar energy — but not the electricity itself. “Environmental attributes” is the sort of mumbo-jumbo that’s hard to explain in news releases and on

Web sites, so thousands of certificate buyers simply say that 100 percent of their power is green.

Jay Hancock, reporter for The Baltimore Sun, states in this blog, “Are wind-energy contracts a scam? Or will they save the world? Neither, actually.” 

I agree with Mr. Hancock that these are neither a panacea for a greener planet nor are they evil incarnate. My problem is with the lack of choice that Gerard and the rest of the Champaign City Council gave their constituents. In the end, it is less about the environment and more about this city council becoming a further nanny state and ridicules anyone who is in opposition.  

The lone nay vote, Karen was rebuked by the mayor in a kidding way that she was always the first to be in line to get her parade for the Champaign Freedom Celebration referring to her patriotic comment during the no vote.

In the end, the Mayor gets a hollow victory to claim 100 percent green energy is powering Champaign, when it is actually lower than 5 percent and we get stuck with an additional $10 we could have used to offset the taxes and fees raised by Gerard and the Champaign City Council. Score another victory for government control and a loss for our liberty and freedom.