Duxbury recently signed up to buy renewable energy credits from the builder/operator of solar electric generating facility in Acushnet. The contract, which runs for a decade, is estimated to save our town an estimated $25,000 to $30,000 per year.  That is nothing to sneeze at But before we fall all over one another congratulating ourselves on being innovative and ahead of the curve, let us take a closer look. Has Duxbury helped reduce pollution, slowed climate change or cut our dependence on fossil fuels by purchasing these credits? I’m afraid not.

Duxbury has agreed to buy 1.2 Megawatts of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs). These credits, authorized by the Commonwealth’s Green Communities Act, are earned by the owners of renewable energy facilities for every megawatt-hour of electricity they produce. The credits, in the form of certificates, have a monetary value, especially to electric utilities such as NSTAR which are required by law to supply a percentage of the power they provide from renewable sources.  Should an electric utility choose not to generate the required percentage of energy from renewable sources, it can satisfy the law by purchasing RECs, instead.

In the deal just negotiated, Duxbury was able to buy these credits at a discount of 18.5 percent from Pegasus Renewable Energy Partners, LLC of Marston Mills, the owner-operator of the Acushnet facility.  By redeeming them at face value with NSTAR, Duxbury may save itself $25,000 to $30,000 a year on its electric bill.

Those credits will be generated by an extensive solar array in the town of Acushnet, which describes itself as a quiet friendly community with a population of 10,607.

Let’s compare what Acushnet has accomplished to reduce energy costs, pollution, climate change and dependence on fossil fuels compared with what we have done.

Acushnet will be generating all its municipal electricity needs in a hometown renewable solar energy facility. While reducing its energy costs, it will eliminate all the fossil fuel previously used to supply that electricity, with its resulting pollution and negative climate effect.  Duxbury, in contrast, by buying RECs and redeeming them with NSTAR will not be obtaining its electricity primarily from a renewable source. Rather, it will furnish NSTAR with certificates which the utility can use to avoid or postpone its legal obligation to supply a percentage of the electricity from renewable energy facilities.  This is roughly analogous to “cap and trade” which enables a contaminating factory to buy credits from a clean one so as to avoid installing non-polluting machinery or pollution reducing equipment.  The message is that we may have inadvertently become part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

Please don’t shoot the messenger or Duxbury’s Alternative Energy Committee (AEC), which negotiated the deal. When created by the Selectmen, the AEC was charged to identify ways to control the Town’s escalating energy costs. AEC has done that. The flaw was that their charge was drawn too narrowly, focusing only on the bottom line.  Broadening the AEC’s charge to “identify and facilitate long term renewable energy initiatives to reduce pollution, fossil fuel dependence and control energy costs” could point us toward generating additional municipal power needs with a renewable electric generating facility built in Duxbury.  Hopefully, a concerned group of citizens will introduce an article to amend the AEC’s charge along these lines at a future Town Meeting.

Savings are important but safeguarding a life-sustaining climate and achieving a healthier environment are vital. Preserving the earth, as we know it is the essential and enduring bottom line.