Whole Foods Now Selling Wind
We told you in January that Whole Foods purchased the largest share of wind energy credits in the nation. They became the first major national corporation to buy enough renewable energy credits to make up for all of their energy usage.
Now WF wants to help get you in on (pun warning) the winds of change. Reuters reports: “Seventy-six Whole Foods stores in nine states will offer $5 and $15 plastic cards that are to represent the average electricity use by a person - 250 kilowatt hours - and an average household -- 750 KWh - in the United States per month. Renewable Choice Energy will collect money from the sale of the cards and use it to market wind power produced by its clients, which are U.S. wind power producers that sell to utilities on the open power market, said Ted Rose, director of business development for Renewable Choice Energy.”
[from a story on Strange New Products.com, who are dubious of the project]
Renewable Choice Energy is an energy broker, similar to Enron, but focuses on electricity generated from windmill farms. They effectively sell "renewable energy credits" to businesses. With the Wind Power Card, they can now sell credits to consumers through grocery stores like Whole Foods Market.When you buy a card, you don't get any wind-generated electricity delivered to your home however. In fact, all you get is a card that doubles as a refrigerator magnet. Actually, you don't even get any credits, it's just a word they use to give you a sense of getting something from your money. The money you spend goes towards helping Renewable Choice Energy buy and sell electricity.
The cards are not even an investment, because you won't get any material value in return. It's all going to help another company get rich. Most companies seek investors to secure capital. But in this case, RCE is asking people for free money under the context of doing your part to help the environment.
What do you think about the project?
