Those of you that live in Roanoke - or near it, or EVEN in West Virginia - Appalachian Power has a green pricing option where, basically, you buy blocks of green energy (wind, solar, etc). The cool thing is YOU get to decide how many blocks you want to purchase. They are $1.50 each, and since, in my house, we are a little broke right now, we're sticking with 4 blocks a month. As we become more familiar with our new budget - now that we are full time students again - we will add more blocks. There is even the option to match your green energy purchase with the amount of energy you use in a month - so if you have the means, by all means!
Essentially, these "blocks" of energy encourage the use of green energy - unfortunately, it does not guarantee that YOU will be receiving the green energy. However, think of it as a donation - you'd give money to the homeless, the hungry, and the ailing, right? Think of our Earth as ALL of these things, and your purchase of even ONE green energy block helps to alleviate these problems.
Check out their website or call Customer Service and they are willing to explain the program to you.
One pitfall: I thought you could easily purchase these blocks online - it is certainly advertised that way on our account page. However, all times I've attempted to purchase, I was given an error screen and the phone number for Customer Service. So, you may have to make a phone call - but it's worth it. I waited 5 minutes, tops, and was a proud owner of green energy blocks by the end of that time.
(Other companies provide these same services, if you happen to read this post and are NOT in my area, inquire with your power company about their green pricing options).
hey arielle! first of all, great blog. I def. want to follow up on this as much as possible!
ReplyDeletesecond, check out this article from NY TImes. Very interesting piece esp cause it reflects to a class I took at NYU for my Enegy/Environment Concentration. Lots of great literature out there that talks about the future of fossil fuels. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/us/06peak.html
let me know what you think. keep it up!
thanks, francis! your article was VERY interesting. i'm going to put up a full post responding not only to what it said, but also the groups it mentions, "post peak movement" and "transition us". personally, we have often said for years that zach's ability to hunt, and our ability to farm will pay off should we ever have to live without oil (which is not far-fetched at all!) - more to come! thanks for the article!
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