Red Light, Green Light

With billboards of windmills promising gentle, nonpolluting energy, Green Mountain offers Texans a new power avenue. Will they take it? Should they?

A A A Comments By Melissa Hung Thursday, Jun 7 2001

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Sure, Rushing says, people might -- and should -- view with skepticism a young start-up run by thirtysomething tech geeks, but tech geeks can offer consumers something big industry utilities can't.

"The industry guy is an expert on what can be done," Rushing explains. "Problem is, when we have an energy crisis and renewables have just become viable, these two don't fit into what-can-be-done. Coal does. Dick Cheney is a perfect example.

The Saudi Arabia of wind: West Texas's desert landscape and plateaus make it ideal for generating power.

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The Saudi Arabia of wind: West Texas's desert landscape and plateaus make it ideal for generating power.

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"Where we come out of, the tech world, has been invented only for the last five years….We come at it from a much more creative approach."

And a creative approach is what attracts consumers like Craig Gerhard, who care about the way electricity is made.

"It's a very viable solution to how we use our resources," he says of green retailers. "The way we've been producing electricity is pretty destructive."

Gerhard is on the verge of signing up with Green Mountain, though he worries he won't get what he pays for.

"I think the biggest fear I have is that I'll be spending money on renewables and I won't be able to tell," he says. "I mean, how am I really going to know? The light's not going to shine green or anything. Everything is going to be the same to me."

That's a risk he's willing to take.

Related sites

Green Mountain Energy: www.greenmountain.com
Public Citizen: www.publiccitizen.org
Public Utitlies Commission/deregulation in Texas: www.powertochoose.com
Boycott Green Mountain: www.boycottgreenmountain.com
National Green Power: www.nationalgreen.com