The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 7/30/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Aaron Montoya Eric Sutherland, a local entrepenuer, is critical of the Renewable Energy Credit market due to its opacity that does not ensure customers are actually getting the renewable energy they are paying for. Sutherland is campaigning to convince REC customers to rescind their patronage.

CSU and Fort Collins officials received a press release from a self-described concerned citizen late last week letting them know of an initiative to get customers of the community's touted renewable energy credit market to rescind their patronage.

Eric Sutherland, a community critic of the REC market -- which he says is rife with opacity and confusing policy -- went to a Fort Collins Electric Board meeting Wednesday to announce his initiative to board members.

The effort, which Sutherland admitted probably won't work, will operate by distribution of a just-sign-here form addressed to Fort Collins Utilities that requests that the signer be released from the program.

But a CSU official said Monday that the effort is useless and unnecessary, citing the fact that students, who are offered the program through the Housing and Dining department, have full freedom and a wide variety of choices to be environmentally conscious.

"We've updated our market" and tailored advertising "to reflect that the green power program is more broad," said Tonie Miyamoto, the director of CSU's renewable energy programs.

Since students were first offered the program in 2004, 764 have signed up for it. Miyamoto said their patronage has made significant strides toward reducing CSU's carbon footprint.

"The 764 CSU students who have participated in the Green Power Program have offset 1,073 tons of CO2," she said in an e-mail message to the Collegian.

"That is equivalent to 197 cars not driving for one year, 121,793 gallons of gasoline saved, 27,513 tree seedlings grown for 10 years, or 370 tons of waste being recycled instead of going to the landfill. I think this demonstrates a very positive impact on our environment."

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