Foster estimates it will cost 5 to 10 percent more for renewable power. The 50-50 ratio of renewable power to nonrenewable power to be offered by green companies is a huge improvement over what California is currently using. That boils down to 67 percent pollution-causing power. Current power sources do environmental damage. According to The Center for Resource Solutions, electric power plants produce 66 percent of all the sulfur-dioxide pollutants in the United States.
Sulfur dioxide causes acid rain.
Power plants also produce 29 percent of all the nitrogen dioxide which again spells acid rain and smog. They produce 21 percent of all the mercury pollutants found and 36 percent of all the carbon-dioxide emissions, which are the main cause of global warming. Brown points out that consumers have the power to reduce energy pollutants if they just put their money behind their politics. Green-power critics say it will be hard, if not impossible, for consumers to pull away from the power sources currently in use because people tend to go for the bargain. Now they may get no customers, so they may not be in business for very long.