- TEHACHAPI, Calif. (AP) -- The three-bladed propellers play an eerie wind
waltz -- a steady whoosh, whoosh, whoosh -- as the persistent breeze blows.
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- The sleek, angular towers, reaching up
to 140 feet, stand like sentries guarding the grassy hillsides that lead
to California's high desert.
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- "To me, they look like giant toy
pinwheels flickering in the afternoon sun," said Geraldine Veatch,
who lives just west of Tehachapi Pass where more than 4,900 wind turbines
spin out enough energy annually to power 250,000 homes.
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- "Some say they're an eyesore. But
I'd rather have wind turbines than nuclear power plants."
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- California is the birthplace of wind
power in the United States. It's also the first state to let consumers
choose the source of the electricity they use. Now the rest of the country
is watching to see how wind farms and other pollution-free, or "renewable,"
energy producers fare in a competitive marketplace.
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- Power sources considered renewable include
wind, solar, geothermal, biomass (electricity produced by burning garbage)
and small hydroelectric plants (which don't significantly impact wildlife
and water).
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- Prior to March 31, a handful of utilities
held a monopoly on the state's $20 billion power industry. The system made
sense, given the high cost of producing and transmitting electricity and
the need for reliable electricity in this energy-dependent age.
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- But California's deregulation legislation,
passed in 1997, opened the market in the same way the airlines and long-distance
phone industries were restructured.
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- "Deregulation actually doesn't have
anything to do with the flow of electricity, it has to do with flow of
money," said Rich Ferguson, spokesman with the Sacramento-based Center
for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies.
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- "You used to have to give all your
money to the monopoly utility. Now you can chose an independent supplier."
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- Whether consumers will use their buying
power to demand lower prices or whether they'll be willing to actually
pay more for non-polluting choices of electricity generation are unanswered
questions.
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- About 69,000 residential customers have
switched their power providers from utilities to independent suppliers
since the program started late last year, according to California Energy
Commission spokeswoman Claudia Chandler.
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- But the utility industry is not yet able
to determine how many of those customers chose renewable power sources,
Chandler said.
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- Ferguson said the majority were likely
green switches.
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- "It's the biggest factor in the
competitive market," he said. "Prices aren't a strong marketing
factor at this point."
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- John Shahabian, owner of The Coffee Works
in Sacramento, said he has switched his small business to renewable energy
and is planning to change over at home as well.
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- "I'm doing it because I'm so opposed
to nuclear power," he said. "It's such a disaster for the planet.
We have to think not just about the quantity but also the quality of the
energy we use and how it affects the air and the Earth."
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- Several high-profile companies also have
gone green for all its rewards, which include being a strong image marketing
tool.
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- Patagonia Inc., the Ventura-based outdoor
clothing company, announced recently that it has committed to using 100
percent wind energy to power its 14 California facilities.
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- "We decided, as a company, to participate
in eliminating or reducing the dirty power that's on the grid by replacing
it with clean power," said Patagonia spokeswoman Lu Setnicka.
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- But the company won't be going off the
grid and running power lines direct to the wind turbines. Instead, it has
contracted to buy its electricity from Enron Energy Services. Enron is
building a 16-megawatt wind farm near Palm Springs to accommodate the contract.
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- "We think of the grid as a pool
full of dirty water," Setnicka said. "As more and more power
users add clean energy to the pool by buying renewable energy, the water
will slowly clear. It's the replacement principle."
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- Setnicka said Patagonia will pay a premium
for the power but declined to say how much.
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- "We're thinking in broader terms
about what cost means," she said. "What are the costs of using
non-renewables to our health, or the Earth?"
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- Toyota Motor Sales also committed to
using a mix of renewables -- including wind, solar and geothermal -- to
power its Torrance and Irvine headquarters. The division also is working
on switching over to renewable energy at its Long Beach docking facility
and an auto parts supply facility.
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- Jim Cooke, Toyota's national manager
of real estate and energy affairs, said choosing clean electricity will
cost the company an extra $1 million. The positive response justifies the
higher price, he said.
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- Among municipal customers, Santa Monica
recently became the first city in the state to commit to green power. Its
city council voted to "pursue at the earliest possible date"
the purchase of green power for city hall and other city-owned buildings.
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- California's "green power marketing"
programs are not to be confused with "green pricing" offered
by various utilities across the country, said Randall Swisher, executive
director of the Washington-based American Wind Energy Association.
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- "Green power marketing" is
a way of distinguishing a product in a competitive market, he said.
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- "Green pricing" is when customers
in a non-deregulated marketplace volunteer to pay a premium for their electricity
to a monopoly utility. The utility then invests that money in renewable
power.
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- Wisconsin, Colorado and Texas are a few
of the states where monopoly utilities are offering "green pricing"
programs.
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- In California, customers can simply call
an independent power source and choose from a variety of packages.
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- For instance, for an extra $7.45 to $16.90
a month, customers can chose a package from Southern California Edison's
Earthsource 50 or 100 programs, offering power that is either 50 percent
or 100 percent from renewable sources.
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- Billing arrangements vary, but under
many agreements customers will continue to receive one electric bill, although
they'll be itemized to show how much they're paying for their energy and
how much for transmission.
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- In some cases, customers will receive
two bills, one from the utility for transmission and another for electricity
generation.
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