.2% Of Georgia Electric Customers Willing To Pay A Few Dollars More Monthly For Renewable Power

Michelle Conlon is a committed renewable energy activist. The Atlanta resident helped start a green power program in Tennessee that generates electricity from the wind and sun. Now she sells solar panels across the Southeast. But Conlon won't pay the extra $4.50 a month for Georgia Power's Green Energy program. She says the program — one of the costliest in the country — doesn't offer enough for the money.

Let the presidential candidates, Gov. Sonny Perdue and other politicos sing the glories of homegrown resources and energy independence. Let Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio make all the movies they want about global warming. Hardly anyone is buying it.

Only a fraction of 1 percent of Georgia's electric customers are willing to pay the few dollars extra every month for renewable energy. The state's participation rate is one-tenth the national figure, which is a paltry 2 percent. That's led many renewable energy advocates to call for federal mandates.

Congress has come close to requiring electric utilities to produce a certain percentage of their power from renewable sources. Most recently, the House of Representatives' version of the Energy Independence and Security Act would have required power companies to produce 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

EDIT

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/08/10/green_energy_georgia.html

People are getting squeezed right and left, few can afford the prices they are already paying.

nt

For instance, credit card rates were already in the upper 20% range for many lower income families.

Feeling the pinch of Bushco's economic policies didnt just start with the housing crisis.

If that's true, it's very worrisome. Energy prices have barely begun to rise.

shouldn't be. Most folks are not dumb enough to do that.