Okay, so I can’t believe I missed this! My electric company (Puget Sound Energy) has a green/renewables opt-in program. I’ve lived here for a year and just found out about it (oddly enough, via Twitter) a couple of days ago. Talk about being behind…
I have to admit that I don’t look closely at my utility bills. I’ve swapped out my light bulbs for CFLs, use the energy-efficient power settings on my computers, and have been researching smart power strips so that I can stop trying to remember to turn off all my electronics at the strip level. I run my little dishwasher and broken dryer experiments, and keep an eye on my little power usage graph. But I only pay attention a little bit, since I’m not controlling all the other variables, so my experiments are far from scientific.
But, seriously, I missed the fact that we had a clean energy opt-in option. Suffice to say, I signed up immediately. Apparently, Olympia has the highest opt-in rate of any region in the program, which is “Yay!” but not really surprising.
As an added bonus, local business have signed up to give discounts to participants in the program as part of the Green Power Rewards program. It would be great if the list of participating businesses was a little longer. Notably missing is my co-op. I’d have thought they’d be all over that. PSE is also sending me a free water bottle, which is awesome.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/photogramma1/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
The biggest incentive is that my money is supporting the further expansion and development of renewable energy programs. I am fortunate enough that an additional $10 to the electric company is not going to make or break my monthly utility budget. This was an easy decision for me, because the fact is that consumer demand is integral to the success of renewable energy programs around the country. The more of us opt-in, the greater the demand, the more likely we are to see meaningful change in how our energy is produced.
The Moral of the Story: Check with your local power company and ask if they have an opt-in renewable program! I signed up online, but calling is even better. Even if they say no – especially if they say no – at least the company knows that there is a demand out there for renewable energy.
