CO2 Offsets Terms & Conditions: When You Offset Your CO2 with NativeEnergy, NativeEnergy will purchase on your behalf the rights to all of the environmental attributes associated with the energy to be generated by a portion of the generating capacity of the Greensburg Wind Farm over its first twenty years of its commercial operations (“Delivery Term”). These attributes include the carbon dioxide emissions reductions (carbon offsets) produced by that energy's displacement of fossil fuel powered electricity generation on the grid. We will make this purchase for you after the Greensburg Wind Farm achieves commercial operations (it is our contract to provide REC funding that the project is relying on to proceed with development and construction). For each ton of CO2 you offset with NativeEnergy from the Greensburg Wind Farm, we will allocate you, in each year of the Delivery Term, the REC output of a 21.576649 watt share of the Project's nameplate generating capacity, which we estimate will produce 904.231 kilowatt hours of RECs and 1 ton of CO2 reductions over the Delivery Term. This Watt share per ton represents the per-ton share of the rounded average of the amount of nameplate generating capacity that will be relied on each year of the Delivery Term to produce NativeEnergy's share of the Project's output, which is net of the Town of Greensburg's electricity consumption. In each year, you will be allocated, per ton, a 1/579330 fraction of the Project's output, net of the Town's consumption. The Town's consumption is projected to grow from about 24% of the Project's output to about 31% over the Delivery Term, and its share of the REC output is capped at 37%. We are in the process of having the Greensburg Wind Farm third party validated to the Voluntary Carbon Standard, with the exception of an extension of the crediting period (i.e., the Delivery Term) to 20 years, with additional discounts to be conservative. This Watt share per ton is subject to adjustment based on the outcome of that validation process, which will then be used for all existing and future purchases from the Greensburg project. Donation to Clean Air - Cool Planet. When you offset with our premium “help build” projects, you are purchasing the rights to a long-term stream of RECs and associated carbon offsets. To have them offset your current CO2 footprint, you need to make sure that your RECs and associated carbon offsets are never sold to someone else later. That's why we donate all our customers' RECs and associated carbon offsets to Clean Air-Cool Planet, for retirement. CA-CP has agreed with us that it will accept our customers RECs and associated carbon offsets, and that it will not sell or otherwise transfer them, or use them, for any purpose, except to the extent necessary or advisable under applicable law to effect their retirement, such as transfer to a duly constituted government agency for retirement. CA-CP has authorized us to make this representation to you on its behalf. If you purchase RECs from us and donate them to CA-CP through us in reliance on that representation, the representation becomes an enforceable legal obligation. Our agreement with Clean Air - Cool Planet obligates us to convey to it legal title to the RECs our customers donate, and obligates Clean Air - Cool Planet to send an electronic acknowledgement of receipt to each of our customers who provides us an e-mail address, and to mail an acknowledgement to each customer who does not provide an e-mail address and who purchases and donates more than $200 of RECs per purchase. In addition, our agreement with Clean Air - Cool Planet gives them the right to audit our business records, to make sure that we're performing our obligations. Clean Air - Cool Planet is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit environmental organization. Project Construction. The Greensburg Wind Farm is expected to achieve commercial operations by June 30, 2010. Part of actually helping build new renewable energy projects is committing to them in their early stages of development, when some uncertainties remain. So if the conditions for our purchase of the Greensburg Wind Farm's RECs are not met, or if the Project is not built with NativeEnergy's support for any reason, your purchase price will help build an alternate project within nine months following June 30, 2010, either from our current portfolio of projects or a project that we add to our portfolio. We have relationships with a number of developers who have suitable projects in the early stages of developmentand that could really use our customers' support. You'll still own, and donate, all the RECs and associated carbon offsets, or other carbon offsets if the alternate project does not generate renewable electricity (such as a farm methane abatement project) to be generated by a share of the alternate project(s)' generating capacity, adjusted for expected generation and expected operating life to produce at least your chosen number of tons of CO2 or CO2-equivalent emissions reductions over its expected operating life, according to the standard under which the project is validated and its emissions reductions verified. If we are unable to accomplish the foregoing, we will acquire carbon offsets from other sources, in an amount equal to your purchase, and will donate them to Clean Air-Cool Planet on your behalf. We'll give you written notice of the alternate source of your carbon offsets, which may be in our newsletter, as well as new estimates of the quantity of RECs/carbon offsets purchased and donated in your name. Project Operations. The project owner/operator has agreed with us that it will use commercially reasonable efforts to build the Greensburg Wind Farm and, once it achieves commercial operations, to operate it for the duration of its Delivery Term specified above. The owner/operator also agreed to perform all manufacturer-recommended maintenance and commercially reasonable repair, and to maintain adequate insurance. We also conservatively discount each project's expected performance to a level that we are confident that the projects we help build will perform - on average - as well or better than we estimated to our customers. So, while we cannot guarantee that every project will generate all the RECs or other carbon offsets we estimated, our conservative discounting enables us to guarantee that if any given project fails, by the end of its Delivery Term, to achieve the REC production or other carbon offsetting performance level we estimated it would, we will retire additional carbon offsets from: (i) that project's performance following the end of its Delivery Term, if available (by extending the Delivery Term until the estimate performance level is achieved); or (ii) the output of other projects in our portfolio that are supplying offsets on an up-front, long-term basis, to the extent that their performance during their Delivery Terms exceeds our estimates, including only: (a) those projects that first entered our portfolio after November 28, 2007; and (b) generating capacity of projects not already allocated to existing customers as of November 28, 2007. As such, all projects are subject to having their over-production, if any, during their Delivery Terms re-allocated to make up for under-production by any other project in our portfolio. Any carbon offsets comprising such over-production that is not so re-allocated will be retired. Our Emissions Reductions Estimates are Estimates Only. We estimate that delivery to the grid of the electricity associated with the kilowatts of generating capacity allocated to you, as applicable, will prevent the emission of the number of tons of CO2 you have chosen to offset, as detailed in our estimating methodology posted on our web site. We are in the process of having this estimating methodology for the Greensburg Wind Farm third party validated to the Voluntary Carbon Standard, with the exception of an extension of the crediting period to 20 years and with additional discounting to be conservative. Things will change, however. Wind speeds vary, for example, and the system mix of power will change, but not exactly in the conservative way we have assumed. There's nothing we can do about that, so the actual CO2 emissions reductions generated by your projects will vary from our estimates, up or down. We will, however, be receiving ongoing third party verified meter data from the Greensburg Wind Farm that will tell us exactly how much electricity your project generates, as well as verified records of the Town's electricity consumption. With this information, our third party validator will verify the CO2 reductions produced by the Greensburg project based on the validated methodology. We'll post that information in our project descriptions and include it in your NativeEnergy newsletter. In addition, the CO2 reducing impact of the electricity the projects generate may be subject to changes in law. See risks and benefits to learn more. Billing. If you choose our monthly payment plan, we will continue to bill your credit card each month until you cancel. Each monthly payment will purchase 1/12 of the number of tons you chose to offset for the year. Your first monthly payment will be dedicated to the Greensburg Wind Farm. Each successive monthly payment will be dedicated to the project(s) to which we are dedicating new customers' purchases at the time of such payment. You can always learn which project your monthly payments are helping to build by checking the current form of these terms and conditions on our web site, sending us an e-mail at support@nativeenergy.com, or calling our toll-free number. If it isn't a project you want to help build, we'll either switch you to a different project or terminate our monthly billing, whichever you prefer. If you choose our upfront payment option, we will not automatically bill you again next year, although we will ask you to renew your purchase at that time.
If you elect our convenient monthly payment option,
you may cancel any time for any reason by sending us an e-mail to support@nativeenergy.com
or calling us at (800) 924-6826 and we will immediately discontinue further
charges to your credit card. Other Legal Provisions. EXCEPT AS SET FORTH EXPRESSLY IN THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, NATIVEENERGY MAKES NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER IMPLIED OR EXPRESS, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE (this disclaimer may not apply in your state). All our estimates regarding the quantity of emissions reductions represented by your RECs are subject to changes in law. Learn more about the risks and benefits. In no event shall either party be liable to the other party for indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages of any kind, including, without limitation, loss of revenues or profits. In no event shall NativeEnergy be liable for any failure to perform to the extent caused by or resulting from any cause or circumstance beyond its reasonable control and which, by the exercise of due diligence, it could not have reasonably prevented or overcome. All damages shall be limited to actual damages only. The agreement set forth in these terms and conditions shall be governed by, and construed and enforced in accordance with, the laws of the State of Vermont, without regard to its provisions governing conflicts of laws. Any dispute arising under this agreement shall be subject to mandatory arbitration in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association, and the arbitrator's decision shall be final and binding upon the parties. All information included on the web pages or pop-ups linked to in these terms and conditions is incorporated into these terms and conditions by this reference, with the same effect as though fully set forth herein. If you have questions about our terms and conditions, please contact us at info@nativeenergy.com or call (800) 924-6826. |