For the first time, we have the power to choose clean electricity instead of electricity that pollutes our planet and endangers our health. By choosing clean electricity, we will increase the development of new homegrown electricity resources and technologies, reducing our dependence on polluting fuels. Since renewable sources of electricity like the wind and the sun can be naturally replenished, they offer tremendous benefits to our health and our environment, while ensuring our energy independence.

For every household that purchases the majority of their electricity from clean energy, the environmental impact is like:

• planting over 950 new trees
• taking 1.7 cars off the road
• not driving 20,000 miles EVERY YEAR!

By choosing clean electricity for your household, you make a huge impact on the environment, your family’s health, and your community’s health!

Old power plants are the single largest source of industrial air pollution. By poisoning the air we breathe every day, emissions from these plants endanger the health of every citizen. This pollution also hurts the economy by jeopardizing key industries and business practices.

Old power plants produce 37% of the carbon dioxide that we release into the atmosphere, which is the largest contributor to global warming. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that the average home’s electricity usage creates nearly twice as much of this harmful pollutant as the average car.

Electricity generation produces 64% of the sulfur dioxide that produces acid rain. Acid rain destroys forests, reduces the yield of food crops, and harms aquatic eco-systems. Acid rain also eats away at building materials and paints, causing damage to structures, historical monuments and cemetery headstones.

Old power plants generate many toxins, such as mercury and radioactive waste, for which there is no safe disposal mechanism. Many of these toxic byproducts are then released into our air, land, and water, resulting in damage that may be irreparable.

An increasing number of studies shows that poor economic performance and poor environmental rankings go hand-in-hand. Air pollution resulting from traditional power plants harms our economy by making our cities and towns unattractive to both businesses and residents. Companies are often unwilling or even legally unable to operate in areas that have consistently poor air quality. The tourism industry, an important economic engine, is directly impacted when our forests, fisheries and waterways are contaminated with toxic pollutants.

Huge, outdated plants are "sitting ducks" for terrorists. Industry experts admit there is little that can be done to protect these plants from attacks and the resulting toxic pollution that would spread far and wide. Our continued reliance on these plants feeds our need for foreign oil, leaving us vulnerable to policies dictated by foreign governments as well as supply shortages and price spikes.