Sustainability - - A Focus On Carbon

Last Tuesday, the OPUC Commissioners held a regularly scheduled hearing. The main topic was Portland General Electric's (PGE) proposed acquisition of 175 aMW of wind. At the hearing, which I attended, renewable and environmental advocates were out in force. Dozens of citizens showed up wearing read t-shirts, some with 350.org, others from the Sierra Club. Others wore the color red in solidarity. Commissioner Bloom, the lone Republican on the three-member Commission, read prepared remarks that were extraordinary, being delivered from the Dias. He chastised PGE for an op-ed in the Oregonian the prior Friday in which the Company's head honchos essentially pleded with the public to come to help support their proposed acquisition before the Commission. I've seen the Commissioners take witnesses to task. What I hadn't seen was a thorough admonishment of a utility at the beginning of a hearing, reading from prepared remarks. Customer groups had filed testimony opposing P...

That's a very good question.  We need to look closely. Q1: Has any existing fossil-fuel generation facility reduced its production in MWh as a direct result of  the utility, say PGE, purchasing RECs? If it can be shown that an existing fossil fuel generator has reduced its production such that it's clear that it  isn't (1) a scheduled outage, or (2) an unscheduled outage, or (3) due to any issue with the power system, then and only then can it be claimed that carbon emissions has declined as a direct result of replacing the output of a fossil fuel electricity generator with that of a renewable (wind, water, sum, etc) production.  Then and only then can it be claimed that carbon emissions have actually declined. Q2: Could the purchase of RECs replace a new fossil fuel generator? Yes, it could.  However, the electricity from the renewable generator must be bundled with the REC in order to claim the carbon reductions.  If the electricity from the renew...