I’ve got a lot of positive and negative feedback on this week’s edition of the Web Hosting Show podcast.  The most interesting of the bunch is the debate over how usual “green” hosting really is.  I know some hosts out there really want to do better by the environment, and feel like this is helping.  After reviewing all the facts though I still feel like it is a three card monte-like scam.  Here is a view from the other side of the fence from Jen L, one of the debaters…

We do it, and if it’s a scam, then so is my electric company regulated and overseen by the government.

At my home, I have the option to pay a premium for renewable energy, and I have lots of official stuff on my bill showing the higher price I pay with the guarantees that money got fed into the grid. My electric company releases the energy I pay for into the grid – they have to, or its illegal. Are the zaps coming into my house guaranteed to be clean?

No. Energy delivery is communal – but the higher premium I pay puts more clean energy into the grid that would not otherwise get there. If enough people chose to pay for the higher premium, a higher percentage of energy in the grid would be renewable. Does it come with the same ego boost as solar panels on the top of my house? No. Does it ensure that less pollution comes from me because I pay more than everyone else? Yes. It makes a difference.

It’s the same concept. Green Tags enable people that want to buy renewable energy but who don’t have it directly available to them to do so. If *everyone* did it no matter where they were, we could all be green in a short amount of time.

If you wonder if its a scam, ask to see the certificates that were issued (as we all get certificates saying precisely what we bought), and the report as to how they arrived at how much to offset. If they can’t give it to you, then yes, possibly, it’s a scam.

If they *can*, the place you are hosting is paying for their energy *twice*, once to keep the power on, and again in the same amount to feed that energy they used back into the grid as green energy so someone else doesn’t have to use dirty energy.

How someone voluntarily choosing to pay for their electricity twice can be considered “a scam” is beyond me.

Check out podcast 151 for yourself and join the debate.  Is green hosting good or just another sales gimmick to get you in the door?