Should one admit this? Some of us have pretty clear, and fond, memories of something called S&H Green Stamps. Our mothers would get sheets of them for purchases at the supermarket, and we would spend stupid amounts of time licking them and pasting them into S&H booklets. We would then go to the Green Stamps redemption store and buy something glamorous because it was "free": a toaster, a mixer, maybe a vacuum cleaner if you saved up a big stack.
Not everyone would agree, but part of the charm was the labor of licking and pasting, and the tactile satisfaction of the fat little books piling up in a corner. "Virtual" collecting may be as satisfying to many, and it's that notion driving the idea for a green stamp program in Connecticut -- aimed at helping people buy energy efficient appliances and products.
As correspondent Lisa Wood reports, energy management company CPower has proposed the virtual-stamp program to Connecticut utility regulators. That state has a "white tag" market that CPower sees as a possible model for others if Congress creates a national energy efficiency portfolio standard.
Connecticut's standard is for utilities and retail electricity suppliers to meet 3% of their demand through efficiency; the amount will rise to 4% next year. The companies meet their requirement by securing certificates, "white tags," created largely when businesses or institutions save energy through efficiency measures. In CPower's plan, residential customers could get into the certificate market when they buy efficiency-rated appliances, light bulbs and the like.
A customer would get 40% of the certificates generated by the sale; some he would get back immediately in cash and the rest would become "green stamps" in his account. He could later redeem the stamps for energy-efficient products. The rest of the certificates would go to CPower and to program administration.
Utilities and some consumer interests are doubtful about the idea, partly, they say, because it could reap unwarranted rewards for CPower since many customers already would be buying the products anyway and would be so-called free riders. It's not clear yet whether regulators will OK the program, but they have been presented with an intriguing notion.
How fitting that virtual stamps would represent what might be called negawatts; both live in the virtual world. And it is not surprising that Intel is CPower's newest financial backers. Instead of little booklets, these green stamps will need lots of computer chips.
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