DNC Carbon Credit Fiasco

Congratulations to Face the State for breaking the story about a Colorado wind turbine used by the DNC as a carbon offset. There’s just one little problem: the turbine doesn’t actually work.

Face the State reports that the “wind turbine installed this year by the Wray School District RD-2… has never produced marketable energy due to massive equipment malfunctions.” Nevertheless, both the governor and media reports have praised the “alternative” energy turbine.

Apparently the left cares a lot more about the “alternative” part than it cares about the “energy” part. (Though I do have to wonder how much oil, coal, and natural gas it took to erect this broken wind machine.)

Colorado Springs’s Gazette had some fun with the story:

Religious indulgences involved paying the leaders of various religious institutions that claimed authority or expertise in the spiritual realm. In return for payment, church officials granted absolution for sins. …

Carbon offsets work the same way. Some wealthy environmentalists pollute far more seriously than ordinary average folks, but they feel bad about it. …

[Some Democrats] buy indulgences from a branch of the green church called NativeEnergy, a Vermont-based business that brokers carbon credits, or “offsets.”

Howard said NativeEnergy paid the school district between $200,000 and $300,000 to issue “green tags,” which it will use to represent the indulgence credits. How does one value supernatural green currency blessed by public school officials?

“It’s strictly a matter of negotiating price,” [Wray superintendent Ron] Howard said.

NativeEnergy officials asked Howard not to disclose the exact amount they paid for the green tags. And why is that? It’s because NativeEnergy makes money by marking up the cost of indulgences. The seller (NativeEnergy) doesn’t want the buyer (Democratic Party) to know the wholesale price. A freedom of information request will solve the mystery.

But before you laugh too hard, remember that these are the folks setting energy policy for the rest of us.