Instead it's a plea for people to sign up to participate in the state's electric choice program. Starting in January, 3.5 million Pennsylvania customers will be able to choose what company produces the electricity they use. The rest of the state's 5.2 million customers will get to choose starting in 2000. Environmentalists are hoping the Pennsylvania program and electric reform efforts in other states will help change the way the U.S. produces its electricity. Less than 1 percent comes from windmills, solar power or other renewable sources.
Critics complain that the electric industry is the country's top polluter.
Give people a choice, and things will start to change, they say. Pittsburgh consumers opposed to nuclear power, for instance, help pay for Duquesne Light Co.'s Beaver Valley nuclear plant with each kilowatt they use. But the electric choice program will change all that, allowing customers to seek out more desireable sources of power if they wish. But the green power movement faces a couple of problems. One is cost.