Green Mountain Energy's Effects on the Air

Many eco-conscious Americans want to get off the coal-fired grid but aren't sure how to tap into clean, renewable energy for their home electricity. Enter Green Mountain Energy. The company offers clean electricity products and carbon offsets to residential and commercial customers. The company operates in the unregulated market of Texas and partners with utilities in Oregon, New York and New Jersey, but customers in any state can take advantage of the carbon offsets program. According to the company's website, Green Mountain's nearly 600,000 customers have made a huge impact in preventing CO2 pollution in the United States since its founding in 1997 -- helping to prevent 11.7 billion pounds of CO2 and counting.

Clean Air Impact

• Green Mountain Energy offers a clean energy alternative to getting electricity from coal-fired power plants.

  According to the Green Mountain Energy website, since 1997 their customers have removed as much CO2 pollution from the atmosphere as taking 45 million cars off the road for a week, turning off the lights for a week in nearly 408 million homes or recycling nearly 4 billion pounds of newspaper. The company also says that the demand from their customers has resulted in the construction of more than 40 solar and wind facilities in the United States.

Clean Energy Products

• Customers in parts of California can tap into solar energy for their electricity.

  Green Mountain Energy supports renewable energy projects across the country, including wind farms, solar panels, biomass, geothermal, landfill, hydroelectric power facilities and methane carbon capture offsets -- methane is a greenhouse gas that escapes from landfills and wastewater sites; new technology can capture and convert methane into usable biogas fuel. The type of renewable energy project used in a particular area depends on the natural resources of the region, for the most part. For example, Green Mountain Energy has two solar projects in California, four wind projects in Wyoming, two hydro projects in upstate New York and a geothermal project in Utah.

Carbon Offsets

• Customers can make their next flight carbon neutral by purchasing carbon offsets through Green Mountain Energy.

  Some customers live in areas that do not have deregulated utility services or where Green Mountain has not partnered with a local utility. In that case, anyone can offset their carbon emissions and reduce their carbon footprint. Green Mountain offers consumers options to offset their carbon footprint from driving, flying, home electricity use and general offsets.

  For example, if you own a fuel-efficient car or hybrid with a an average fuel economy of 38 to 60 miles per gallon, you can offset 3 metric tons of carbon emissions for $42. That money will go to support Green Mountain Energy's other clean energy projects that reduce or avoid carbon emissions.

Calculating Air Pollution

• Green Mountain Energy works for cleaner air with clean energy and carbon offsets.

  To figure out the CO2 their customers avoid, Green Mountain Energy multiplies the monthly electric usage in kilowatts per hour (kWh), times the percentage of renewable energy generation from the clean energy product, times the C02 emission rate of a typical dirty power system in that area, such as a coal-fired power plant.