Flip the Switch--Tell Your Electric Co. That You Want Sustainable Energy!

Telling your electricity company to purchase electricity from sustainable sources instead of coal and nuclear power plants is the single most effective, cost efficient and fastest way to make a difference now. You can do it in about 60 seconds through your electricity company’s website.

Residential energy use accounts for 21 percent of the total energy consumed in the United States. As homeowners, we can make a real difference by choosing to power our homes with sustainable energy (solar, wind and methane). Fortunately, purchasing a wind turbine or solar panels isn’t the only way to make the switch. You simply have to let your utility company know that you want your energy to come from sustainable sources.

In order to meet the energy demands of its customers, utility companies purchase their electricity from the least expensive sources possible, allowing them to keep their costs down and their profits healthy. At the moment, sustainable sources are more expensive to purchase than traditional energy providers who create electricity using coal or nuclear power–so your utility company will not purchase solar, wind or methane generated energy unless you buy it first.

When you sign up for sustainable energy, your utility company then diverts your monthly electricity purchase from traditional suppliers to sustainable ones. As more people switch their electricity purchases to sustainable sources, utility companies will purchase less energy from traditional companies and more energy from sustainable ones. This simple act that truly takes about 60 seconds can have staggering results if enough homeowners make the switch.

For more information or to subscribe at the introductory price of $10 a year, go to positivelygreen.com. Positively Green magazine launched in 2008 as a quarterly women’s magazine that covers every aspect of green from eco-friendly vacations to green fashion to green health. With articles that don’t just explain the problems, they outline solutions for busy people who want to make the change but don’t have the time to research solutions.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Sue H.

5:48PM PST on Feb 21, 2012

Very good to know, thanks for posting.

send a green star

Marco C.

4:41AM PDT on Mar 19, 2011

A seemiingly little known fact and extremely powerful (no pun intended) option, and therefore a valuable post. Well done and thank you!

Gordana R.

3:25AM PDT on Mar 19, 2011

good to know

Adam K.

9:59PM PDT on Mar 18, 2011

LADWP cannot get the lead out fast enough in obtaining sustainable electricity sources. Too slow for me.

KS G.

1:13AM PST on Feb 27, 2011

Thanks for the article.

Julia A.

3:42AM PST on Feb 9, 2011

All new private and public buildings should include solar panels, and interest free loans should be available for updating existing buildings. Even in England, our solar panels can generate all the energy we use in our home in a year - with Feed In Tarriff we sell it to the grid for more than we buy it back for.

Fawna F.

4:42AM PST on Dec 10, 2010

Thanks.

Robin T.

3:21AM PST on Nov 29, 2010

Well said
Bobby J. Mar 18, 2009 5:22 PM
Why aren't all new homes being built with a windmill and solar panels? It would be much cheaper and simpler than overhauling our entire power grid also our power supply (as a whole) would not be as susceptible to natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
We need to be very carefull when planning Solar and Wind farms. So far almost every Solar farm, I have read about, has been built on valuable arrable land and this inspite of a steadily worsening world wide food shortage.
The only reason for this is that corporations would loose easy control of our power if the panels were on roof tops of which we have more than enough.

Make a difference, plant a tree.

Mari '.

4:56AM PST on Nov 28, 2010

Tell my power company? Most of it's wind coming from Mars hill

Bonni F.

1:22PM PDT on Aug 8, 2010

Thank you.