It’s Earth Day: Do you know how green your power is?

There’s going to be a lot of celebratin’ going on this Friday. April 22 may be Good Friday to you, but it’s also Earth Day to many, at least to many greenies here in the U.S. Started in 1970 by a U.S. senator concerned after a large oil spill---my how things haven’t changed---Earth Day is supposed to bring communities together to celebrate the sustainable, the healthy and the environmentally positive.

Almost 40 years later, Earth Day is still around, but it’s moved beyond that sustainable celebration to become a massive marketing tool for American culture. This week, even the SyFy Channel turned its logo green in celebration. Of course, watching the SyFy Channel requires using power, which requires, in many cases, the burning of fossil fuels---which those greenies don’t care for. But, really, it’s the thought that counts, right?

Among utilities, there is an equal push to show the “green” side of all sorts of power, even the non-renewables kind.

NextEra Energy's headquarters in Juno Beach, Florida---home to Florida Power and Light Company, NextEra Energy Resources and other NextEra Energy subsidiaries---grabbed Gold-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. They’re pushing energy efficiency and energy savings this week. (NextEra is the green arm of things, although that green portfolio does include some bones of contention, including eight nuclear units and some natural gas-fired plants. On the definitely green side, though, they do have 7,540 MW of wind capacity scattered across the U.S. and Canada. No arguments about that.)

A company down in the Lone Star State is opting to purchase RECs to show their commitment---but just for Earth Day. Renewable energy credits (RECs) are a bit of a gray area for greenies, too. The buying of RECs---which are produced by renewable power companies when they make green power but aren’t always sold with the power itself---is basically a company saying, “OK. So, we don’t personally have enough renewable sources of our own to make this requirement. So, we’ll buy some.” It’s not really planting the tree yourself, but more like buying the dirty t-shirt off the guy who planted the tree---and some of his good karma, too, let’s say. While positive in the fiscal support of green power, it doesn’t actually physically offset the carbon-produced power product used. RECs are created by the government to give renewables more market muscle, but it doesn’t mean that the power said company will give Texas that day is actually from a green source.

Tampa Electric is offering $1.5 million in rebates each year for five years to help customers install renewable technologies like photovoltaic (PV) solar systems and solar water heating. They actually announced that last week, but they added it to a press release touting some Earth Day events their employees are participating in this week. This could help interest the local greenie in PVs, but it doesn’t, again, do much to impact fossil fuel use on a larger scale, which would make for a super excited greenie on Earth Day.

Of the three Earth Day announcements listed here---and, believe me, they are only three of many---Tampa Electric’s is probably the most in tune with the original thinking of Earth Day: getting the community involved in sustainability---in Tampa Electric’s case, getting them hands-on involved. Actual steps in sustainability may still be of the “baby” variety here, but, behind all the marketing chatter for Earth Day, there remains a core truth to believe in.

After all, these concepts wouldn’t sell so well if there wasn’t a market for them. While the real legacy of Earth Day may reside heavily in the realm of whitewashed PR at the moment, the very fact that Earth Day still garners such attention---right down to the greening of the SyFy logo---gives all greenies hope that, in the future, there may be real, massive renewable power behind the annual celebration.

We’re not there yet, but we may be able to hitch an EV-powered ride to that future soon.