A recent opinion piece by Virginia Sierra Club Vice Chair, Ivy Main pointed out the fallacy of Dominion Power’s green energy claims.  Ms. Main says that litigation brought out that Dominion is selling green power that is outdated (the majority of their cited projects are “pre-world war II”) and that despite their advertising showing wind farms, none of the power they use is actually produced by wind.  My conclusion is that this piece shows why third-party, independent verification is extremely important for consumer protection, and why utilities should not be allowed a monopoly on business in any given state.

Clean Currents and a few other energy suppliers use Green-e Energy to certify and verify the green power we sell.  Green-e is the most widespread certification for green power, run by the independent non-profit, Center for Resource Solutions.  The Green-e Energy certification means that you can be assured the product you are buying is from a new renewable energy generator and that any marketing claims the company selling you the product makes are actually true.  The energy world, as this piece shows, is an opaque and complex world.  With Green-e Energy certification, you are getting a level of protection and transparency that you would not otherwise get.  After all, if you are making the commitment to purchase wind power, you want to be sure that are spending your money on wind power.

Virginia is a monopoly energy market, meaning the utility (in this case Dominion Power) is the only entity that can sell you electricity.  There’s no competition.  This is in contrast to the markets in Maryland and Washington, DC.  In these markets, consumers who don’t like or don’t trust their utility can buy wind power or other forms of energy from competitive suppliers such as Clean Currents.  Consumers who want the added levels of protection that third party certification brings can choose to purchase Green-e Energy certified products.  As this piece indirectly shows, a monopoly market that puts overburdened state regulators in charge of policing the state’s utilities does not do a good job of protecting the consumer.  Competition, with clear rules and good consumer protection laws, is the best way to bring innovative products to the market.

That’s a win for the environment and a win for consumers.