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Did these guys get Tony Snow to start writing blog posts for them? Famous blogging site, BoingBoing has an article with about as much investigative journalism as Fox News detailing how ‘useless’ wind power credits are. From the site,

“Whole Foods is selling wind-power cards that looks like gift cards (with dollar amounts on them), but you can’t actually use them to buy wind-generated (or any other kind of) power. In fact, the cards don’t do anything but enrich an Enron-like energy broker called Renewable Choice Energy.”

Wow. Apparently, this is the type of person that has never heard of the act of giving up money for the betterment of something else; that something else here being the planet Earth. Guess what? I buy $10/month worth of wind power from Horizon Wind Energy. Do I really believe that a portion of my power is coming directly from the wind? No. There’s a mix in there somewhere maybe, but really, my actions are backing up my belief that a little cash here or there towards something like Horizon Wind will help the environment.

One more thing: Placing Enron and Renewable Choice Energy in the same sentence is about the most hilarious thing I’ve seen all week. Next time, try going to their website or looking up ‘wind credits’ before getting all hot and bothered about a topic you clearly do not understand. (As an aside of fairness, here is a great post on how wind credits work!)

via Musings of an Eco-Entreprenuer

Update:

Mark from BoingBoing has offered more reasons for stating the above and with his fleshed out argument, I can now see where he is coming from. His side is that because these cards do no accurately explain in detail where a person’s hard-earned cash is going, they could be seen as deceptive. Ok, I’ll agree with that perspective. However, the cards do say that purchasing these credits will have the same effect on greenhouse gases as planting 13 trees. They also say that $15 is roughly equivalent to 750KW hours. So, by purchasing this card, I am essentially offsetting some of my monthly contribution of emissions.

This is the same practice that companies the world-over do when they purchase wind credits. They receive very little in return except something nice to add to their press releases regarding social responsibility. However, they are also contributing to the development of wind power elsewhere in the country that adds more clean energy to the grid and quickens the development of a diversified energy portfolio.

These are feel-good cards. You feel empowered by purchasing them. You feel you are making a difference. Your money is going to a business responsible for putting it to work for the environment. If people are skeptical, then yes, more education where they are sold wouldn’t be a bad idea. Mark’s argument should make marketing take notice for those not up to date with what wind credits offer. But useless, they are not.

Update #2: Shea posted some images of the display for the cards at the Boulder Whole Foods. While I can’t make out the details, it seems pretty friendly with arrows and a “How It Works” explaining the whole process.

Update #3: Ecospree offers some good perspective on the issue as well.