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Customers sign up to pay an additional fee of four cents for every kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity they buy through the voluntary Cow Power program, which goes to participating farms. This voluntary 4 cent/kWh tariff went into effect in October 2004, after CVPS received approval for the program from its officers and board of directors, the Public Service Board and the Vermont Department of Public Service. The tariff is also referred to as the attributes/ premium: Customers pay to support this type of renewable energy generation. The money goes to the farmers so that they in turn are able to afford the environmental benefits/attributes, such as the renewable energy certificate, odor reduction, weed seed destruction and greenhouse gas reduction resulting from installing an anaerobic digestion system.

Customers can choose 25 percent, 50 percent or 100 percent of their electricity to be enrolled in the Cow Power program. Under the 100 percent plan, CVPS customers using 500 kWh of electricity per month pay an extra $20 each month, and under the 50 percent plan they pay an extra $10.

Appears voluntary. If you have a bee in your bonnet about other sources of electricity generation, and want to spend $10-$20/month to feel virtuous, why is there a problem?

As much as 40 to 45 percent of total project costs at each farm were covered by grants from the CVPS Renewable Development Fund, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, and Vermont's Clean Energy Development Fund. The average CVPS Fund grant in the last round of funding was about $160,000. The farms also received grants through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's section 9006 program that subsidizes up to 25 percent of the costs of renewable energy systems on farms and ranches. The maximum section 9006 grant is $500,000, which would be 25 percent of a $2 million project.

Farmers getting another handout.

If you have a bee in your bonnet about other sources of electricity generation, and want to spend $10-$20/month to feel virtuous, why is there a problem?

That is not a problem. What is a problem is all of the taxpayer funded grants which are used to set up these systems.

I'm all in favor of anyone setting up electrical generation facilities which sell power to the electric companies. Just do it on your own dime. If it has a decent enough profit margin for a reasonable return on investment, people will readily create these facilities. If not, it is just another feel-good socialist shell game.