Green Power, or staving off the End of the World

In September, National Geographic came out with an article about global warming. It scared the crap out of me. I encourage you to read it. Basically, the article says there is an ever-growing pile of evidence that the rise in the earth's temperature over the past century is attributable to human activity. This is primarily due to the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which enhances the greenhouse effect—a greater proportion of the sun's energy gets trapped inside of the earth's atmosphere, thereby increasing the earth's temperature. The primary source of this carbon dioxide is the burning of fossil fuels from power plants and automobiles.

The article left me with the impression that we are all going to be f'ed unless our society stops generating carbon dioxide right now. That's really not going to happen, but I figured I should do my part. Because we live in Manhattan, we drive very rarely, but when we do, it's in our Honda Civic hatchback, which is pretty fuel efficient. However, we use as much electricity as anyone else, so it seemed that this would be a good place to start.

In the old days, you had no say about where your electricity came from. One company would be responsible for both generating electricity (supply) and getting it to your home (delivery). The prices were only reasonable because they were regulated by the government. But now, electric power, like everything else from the media to the airlines, is being freed from the yoke of government control. Deregulation is supposed to benefit the consumer because free market competition means lower prices. (Being the cynical person that I am, I am sure that it would have never happened if it didn't somehow benefit big corporations, but that's another issue.)

In the brave new world of deregulation, the local utility is still responsible for delivering the electricity (and maintaining the wires and pipes and such), but consumers can choose their electricity supplier. All electricity suppliers in the US and Canada feed their electricity into a massive interconnected grid. Once a supplier contributes to the grid, their electricity becomes indistiguishable from every other supplier's electricity. An accounting system ensures that a supplier contributes enough electricity to the grid to match its customers' usage. So now, consumers can shop around for suppliers that offer the lowest rates.

One of the options made available by deregulation is Green Power. This is electricity that comes from only renewable sources, such as hydroelectric and wind. In the NYC market, there are two suppliers that offer Green Power: Con Ed Solutions (which is somehow distinct from regular Con Ed, which does not offer Green Power) and ECONnergy. If you're like me, you figure there's a catch—Green Power must cost more, because if it didn't, everyone would use it, right? Well, yes, it does cost more. But not that much more. When I contacted Con Ed Solutions, they quoted me a rate for one year. (Typically, the supply rate is subject to fluctations in the world energy market, and the supplier changes it from month to month. Con Ed Solutions locks you in at a rate for the year.) I did the math based on our previous year's electricity usage, and found that with the $25 rebate plus the waiver of the 4% state tax on our electricity delivery (our reward for embracing deregulation), Green Power cost $15 more a year. That's $1.25 a month or 4¢ a day! We figured that this is good price for the assurance that the upcoming Armageddeon won't be our fault, so we signed up.

There are reasons to sign up for Green Power beyond simply having the moral high ground. When people sign up, it encourages more investment in innovative energy sources, and introduces an economy of scale that will bring prices down. At some point, we will reach the tipping point where Green Power will cost the same as old-school power, and everybody else, not just the environmental idealists, will switch. And then maybe we can stave off the end of the world for a little while.

Most states have deregulation and Green Power programs. Find out if there is a Green Power program offered in your area or check out your state's Public Service Commission website.