False Solution:
Renewable Energy Credits
Renewable energy credits (RECS) allow governments and businesses to claim sustainability while continuing to use fossil fuels.
What are RECS?
Renewable energy credits (RECs) are certificates used to track renewable energy. Every megawatt-hour of renewable energy that enters our regional power grid is assigned 1 corresponding REC. These RECs can be sold together with their corresponding energy, or separately—aka “unbundled.” Whichever utility buys unbundled RECs may use the credits to meet their renewable-energy obligations even if the actual power they buy comes from fossil fuels.
For example, if you buy 100 megawatt-hours of power from a coal plant, you can claim to be using renewable power as long as you also buy 100 RECs from a solar farm. Moreover, since the 100 RECs have been unbundled from the solar farm energy, the purchasers of the solar energy itself may not claim to be using renewable energy: the credit for the renewables has already been taken.
Buying RECs from pre-existing renewable sources makes it seem like Vermont is achieving our emissions goals without actually reducing the total amount of fossil fuel burned to supply our region's power.
Most of our RECs come from large hydro power, which is not actually a just, carbon-free source of energy. Counting large hydro as renewable (which no other state does) creates a falsely low picture of VT’s emissions.
Less than 10% of RECs from energy produced in Vermont are currently counted toward our own goals; the rest are sold at a profit to other states, who can then claim to be renewable while burning fossil fuels.
Problems with RECs
What we want
End unbundled RECs, especially from problematic sources like Hydro-Quebec.
Make sure we are meeting our goals by adding new renewables (“additionality,” in policy-speak), not simply taking credit for existing renewables.
Enact climate legislation that prioritizes and incentivizes development of local solar, wind, and networked thermal projects that benefit our communities.