In what it says is a response to interest from customers, Black Hills Energy on Wednesday announced plans to offer a voluntary renewable natural gas and carbon offset program for residential and small-business customers.
The program, which the company hopes to start next year, would allow customers to purchase monthly offset "blocks" that would represent a portion of their natural gas usage.
Carbon offsets fund specific projects that either lower carbon emissions or sequester carbon by taking it out of the atmosphere and storing it. Some common examples of projects include reforestation, building or maintaining renewable energy sources, carbon-storing agricultural practices and waste and landfill management.
Each block would consist of a mix of carbon offset credits and renewable natural gas attributes. The blocks would cost $5 apiece and would offset the equivalent of 20.5 therms of natural gas, or approximately 33% of an average residential Nebraska customer’s monthly usage. That means most customers could likely offset their total natural gas usage for about $15 extra a month.
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“Our customers have told us they are interested in sustainable energy and we’re listening,†said said Kevin Jarosz, Black Hills Energy’s vice president of Nebraska operations. “We’ve designed this voluntary RNG and carbon offset program with their direct feedback in mind, cultivated over the past two years through customer surveys, which indicated 56% would be interested in participating in a voluntary RNG and carbon offset program.â€
Black Hills is planning to do four-year pilot programs in both Nebraska and Kansas. It has already received approval for the Kansas one and has a public hearing next week in front of the Nebraska Public Service Commission for its Nebraska proposal.
Katie Fleming, Black Hills' sustainability director, said the company has done modeling that shows about 1-2% of customers are likely to sign up for the offset program.
A strong response to the program could accelerate plans Black Hills has to expand its sustainability efforts.
“We’ll take this time to study a variety of performance factors such as customer interest and enrollments, which in turn have the potential to drive growth in the carbon offset market and in renewable natural gas development across the communities we serve," Jarosz said.
Black Hills earlier this year announced plans to reach "net zero" by 2035, meaning it would totally offset whatever emissions it produces.
It already has four renewable natural gas partnerships in Nebraska, including one involving the Lincoln wastewater treatment plant, and is working on additional ones.
Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird called the program announced Wednesday an "innovative offering" that will give residents "the opportunity to take meaningful actions to help slow the pace of climate change and support our shared vision of a cleaner energy future for all.
"We applaud Black Hills Energy for their leadership in sustainability,†she said.