Once upon a time, wealthy aristocrats would purchase church "indulgences" to offset punishment for their sins; the practice was so abused it helped inspire the Reformation.

Today's aristocrats purchase another sort of insurance against sin. If they are environment-minded, like Al Gore, they buy green power credits from their local utility or from an outfit such as Renewable Choice in Boulder.

They know that it's wrong, according to their creed, to consume vast amounts of energy. But they are human, they are weak, and they can't help themselves. Power credits are their tickets to a clear conscience.

Gore "offsets" his mind-boggling consumption of energy at his Tennessee mansion - more than 12 times the amount used by the average Nashville household, with his bills averaging $1,200 a month - with the purchase of 108 green-power blocks. He rests easy knowing that somewhere, in theory, an equal amount of new renewable energy will be released into the grid.

Talk about a convenient analysis.

While wind farms have slowed the growth in fossil-fuel consumption, they've not reduced net use. Gore's First Commandment is that we must reduce carbon emissions - he yammers about this unceasingly - and yet he squanders energy as if he were the last man on Earth. (What's he doing in that mansion of his anyway, running a foundry?)

For that matter, he's ignoring the need for backup capacity. Remember those rolling blackouts that cut off power to 370,000 Coloradans last year on Feb. 18, winter's coldest day? The Public Utilities Commission later reported that for eight hours that morning, "there was no wind . . . and \[wind power] generation was not as expected."

Wind failure played but a minor role in Xcel Energy's problems, but the point is this: For the foreseeable future utilities are going to need reliable backup energy for when the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine, and Gore's energy guzzling adds to that backup requirement.

In 1567, Pope Pius V put an end to the sale of indulgences. No such fate awaits renewable power credits, of course, but here's what would be nice: for wealthy greens to stop using the credits as an excuse for the sort of profligate lifestyle they insist the rest of us must never enjoy.

'Stand-up guy'?

Is former Denver City Attorney Larry Manzanares, who resigned Tuesday, really a "stand-up guy," as the mayor says?

He is if he's telling the truth.

If he bought a city-owned laptop computer in a parking lot from a stranger without suspecting it was stolen, and resigned for the good of Denver over a mindless mistake, then yes: He's a stand-up guy.

But what are the chances his tale is true? Have you ever encountered someone hawking a computer in a downtown parking lot?

How many of you carry the hundreds of dollars of cash needed to make such a transaction even superficially legitimate? If the $1,579 computer was sold at too steep of a discount, the deal would be sleazy on its face, an obvious signal of the seller's urgency.

It's a cockamamie story, and everybody knows it - about as far-fetched as alibis get.

But of course stranger things have happened. Final judgment must remain on hold. And no matter what the truth, Manzanares' downfall is a stunning personal tragedy given his stellar record and credentials.

Still, it's jarring to hear Manzanares lauded for his "character," "integrity" and as a "stand-up guy" when the odds are that something much worse than a mindless mistake accounted for the whereabouts of that laptop.

Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.