In a November 16, 2009 New York Times article titled, “Paying Extra for Green Power, and Getting Ads Instead,” author Kate Galbraith discusses the efficiency of paying energy providers extra for green energy.
Last year, the Student Environmental Advisory Board (SEAB) purchased green energy offsets for the Anschutz Library on the KU campus. The board voted to pay the cost difference between wind energy and conventional energy to power the library through March 2010. More information about this project is available here.
The NYTimes article questions whether or not the extra money paid for projects such as the one for Anschutz is a viable option for encouraging alternative energy solutions over the long-term. SEAB’s intent was to encourage the use of alternative energy solutions and educate KU students about alternative energy in Kansas. The board considered education and outreach an important aspect of the program. However, in retrospective, the money used to pay for the extra cost of alternative energy could have gone to a project with a higher return on investment.
According to the article, a significant percentage of the money spent on alternative energy through alternative energy sales such as Westar’s wind energy initiative “went into marketing and administration” rather than actual infrastructure. The utilities are essentially collecting extra money that they promise to use to support the development of renewable energy, a pitch that some customers find persuasive.
With only about 2% of customers agreeing to pay a higher monthly bill for alternative energy, the needed investment in infrastructure such as new solar arrays and the bolstered efficiency of a smarter grid will not be possible. I advocate that rather than relying on the investment of a small percentage of the population interested in helping the environment every person should pay a little bit more for the benefit of all. The environment shouldn’t rely on student groups like the Student Environmental Advisory Board to invest in wind energy, it should be everyone’s responsibility. That is what it means to be socially responsible.
