Using the market

While looking on Scoop for the last post, I saw an ad for Greenpeace's Clean Energy Guide. This is an effort to use the market to push renewable energy by pointing out exactly how filthy some of our electricity companies are, and encouraging people to switch suppliers. Companies are classed either red (those which use or plan to use non-renewable energy), orange (those which generate from renewable sources, but haven't ruled out nonrenewable energy), and green (those who have committed to only renewable generation). Companies are ranked within categories by the proprtion of renewable energy they use or plan to use. Currently, Mercury is ranked at the bottom and specifically targetted due to their plans to revive Marsden B and burn coal. The hope is that consumer preferences will help drive investment decisions towards renewable energy (if only by increasing PR costs).

If this has got you thinking about switching, you can get a price comparisom for your area from Consumer's PowerSwitch service. Looking at that for my area, it seems that going greener will likely cost me four whole dollars a year...