Blue Sky or brown sky?
How green is Rocky Mountain Power’s “Blue Sky” program, really?
–by Amy Brunvand
Blue Sky claims to support renewable energy projects, but a new report from HEAL Utah says the program is not as green as you might expect. The report, titled “Brown Sky,” says that when people pay extra on their energy bills for Blue Sky they think they are buying renewable energy for their own homes, but in fact they are still buying power from coal and natural gas . Renewable energy projects built with Blue Sky dollars don’t actually supply Rocky Mountain Power customers, and here in Utah, “about 84% of our electricity mix comes from fossil fuels—much higher than the national average.”
Disappointingly, the report concludes that Blue Sky is “a great way to channel people’s desire for clean energy, without disturbing the utility’s reliance upon fossil fuels.”
Brown Sky: The Truth About How Rocky Mountain Power Obstructs Renewable Energy: healutah.org/
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