Rhett summarizes his bumbling adventure through the world of commodities economics and intangible assets as he attempts to figure out how the green electricity program for Florida Power and Light works. In the process, he lays out criteria he finds sufficient for a carbon offsets company and discovers NativeEnergy, a company which meets his standards.

We apologize for the long running time, but there's no quick way to do this topic, and it's a very important one.

Photo credits: wind farm by rasmithuk, coal plant by mikkoit, hippie dog by sis, and tree by terinea. All photos are available on a CC attributions license.

The free "carbon offset" certificate humorously provided by http://www.freecarbonoffsets.com. To find out more about FP&L's green energy program, please see their FAQ here. For a list of America's biggest REC purchasers, see this list from the US Department of Energy. We'd also like to bring this report (note: PDF) from Clean Air Cool Planet regarding the state of business practices among offset companies.

Also, we'd like to make it clear that we have not been paid or even asked to promote FP&L's green electricity program or NativeEnergy in any way, nor should this video be construed as an endorsement. We're too insignificant to get paid for our endorsements. The purpose of this video is to explore the market forces of RECs and offsets and show how we've come to a conclusion about how we believe we can buy an offset productively. To provide a more balanced perspective, here's an opposing article from FoxNews.com about Congressional investigation into offsets, including NativeEnergy. This was released while we were shooting.