Why is my electric utility company offering a renewable energy option?

You’re not supposed to ask questions about renewable energy, just say yes. If it causes harm, that’s a price we’re willing to pay. Apparently. Any other industry would be fined out of existence.

The odds are that they are being forced by some mandate to offer you the option.

The provider who delivers electricity to your house is not necessarily the power producer – they buy electricity from various sources.

Where I live, the renewable option is slightly more expensive, and some people will pay that to help reduce carbon emissions.

As @stanleybmanly writes, it is likely that a regulatory mandate requires them to ask.

Some people have small wind driven generators or solar panels/shingles. They can sell excess power back to the utility.

Because they love you and want you to be happy.

In Colorado, the law puts the state’s renewable energy standard to 30% by 2020 for Investor owned utilities, and requires that 3% of all electric sales must come from renewable distributed generation (generation on site of consumption, such as by solar panels) by 2020.

I don’t have my energy bill handy, but I remember seeing an option to use up to 100% of wind-generated power. This would appear as a surcharge, based upon the percentage I choose.