California utility companies are mixing coal- or gas-sourced energy with renewable energy, like solar-and wind-sourced, and packaging it to consumers as “green energy”—a process known as “greenwashing,” Jim Phelps, a 35-year veteran engineering contractor and utility rate analyst, said during an interview with Epoch TV’s “California Insider.”
The first greenwashing method energy companies use is through renewable energy, he said.
Energy sources that produce less than 30 megawatts of power are considered renewable energy sources in California.
Phelps said that for every megawatt of power a renewable energy source produces, a certificate is generated.
If a company decides to sell off the energy produced by renewable sources and label it “unspecified,” rather than green, they will be able to retain the green certificate.
Phelps said companies are purchasing what he calls “brown power” produced by coal or gas, bundle it with the certificates, and sell it off as green.
“That’s legal in California. It’s about 3 percent of the energy portfolio that’s allowed to be treated that way,” he said.
This also occurs, Phelps said, when energy companies over-purchase solar energy.
Electricity cannot be stored up or collected, he said, making renewable solar energy only a daytime product.
He said companies will buy more solar energy than what’s needed for their consumers during the day, then sell off the extra energy, but retain the certificates, which are sold with “brown power” at night.
He said a similar “greenwashing” method occurs through hydropower.
“People in California that are involved in all of this greenwashing activity have one thing on their mind, and that is to be as green and clean-appearing as they can,” he said.
