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Since over fifty percent of all electricity in the USA is generated from coal, a search was on to find clean, green energy substitutes. Looking to the past, some folks hit upon the idea of, once again, harnessing the wind - but this time it would be to turn turbine generators high in the sky. It sounded like a great idea on the surface, but there were several problems. The first was that giant sky turbines like this would be very expensive. The second was that the wind is undependable. Some days it blows and others not. But wind profiteers are nothing if not creative, and they devised a way to market wind power’s clean image even if the electricity went unused or no dirty emissions were reduced.
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First the profiteers arranged to have the US Government give them tax credits for electricity their turbines produced regardless of whether the energy contributed to cleaning the environment or was lost among the vast amount of coal generated power on the nation’s electrical grid. The second source of revenue was their ability to sell green energy credits to utility companies bound by certain states to provide electricity produced from renewable sources whether or not any of that energy actually reached those states. It was a deal that would have made P. T. Barnum "green" with envy.