Palatine residents urged to push for green energy supplier
Suburban residents looking to save money on their electricity bills should consider going green and pressure their community leaders to choose environmentally-friendly energy suppliers, a representative of the Sierra Club of Northwest Cook County said Saturday.
Roughly 30 area residents attended an informational meeting at the Palatine Public Library to hear from an alternative energy provider and the Sierra Club about choosing energy suppliers wisely.
Lesley McCain, Midwest Director of Development for Community Energy, Inc., spoke about the benefits of renewable energy — wind and solar — promoting her company’s electricity plan called RE-Power Illinois, which uses 100 percent wind and solar sources.
“At this point in time, this is the greenest supply there is,” she said.
McCain said in 2011, 20 suburban communities opted for electric aggregation — made possible by state deregulation and a proliferation of new energy supplier choices — and 154 towns have referendums on the March ballot on the issue.
Palatine is part of a consortium of towns — Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Lincolnshire, Long Grove, Vernon Hills and Wheeling — seeking to switch from ComEd to an alternate energy supplier. The towns will jointly negotiate better rates for their residents, if a majority of voters in those communities favor energy aggregation in March 20 referendums.
“It’s a community choice. We’re the community, so it starts with us,” said Peter Gorr, a Palatine resident and executive committee member of the Sierra Club of Northwest Cook County. “Village officials are going to take the path of least resistance, the most noncontroversial (choice). You have a decision to make. You could do nothing or you could go home and wait for aggregation.”
If a majority of Palatine voters approve of energy aggregation, individual residents would still be able to opt-out of whatever supplier village leaders choose for the community and go it alone.
“You can pick your own energy supplier from a list of 20,” Gorr said.
Residents also could visit pluginillinois.org, which offers an alternative to aggregation, and signup immediately for a cheaper energy supply rate, Gorr added.
Gorr advised residents to consider more than mere price when choosing a energy supplier, and prompted them to ask questions about the electricity source — whether the energy comes from coal, nuclear, oil and gas or from cleaner options such as wind and solar power.
Residents should consider the economic and jobs impact of picking a particular energy provider, as well as the environmental and health effects, he said.
“There is not a perfect energy source,” Gorr said, adding that even green energy sources, such as wind turbines, have some environmental impact. Yet, their benefits outweigh the negatives, he said.
Gorr urged area residents to attend three upcoming public meetings about the energy aggregation referendum — Feb. 21 in Arlington Heights, Feb. 29 in Buffalo Grove, and March 8 in Vernon Hills — and let elected officials know whether green energy supply is important to them.
Gorr said with energy aggregation residents would see an initial dip in their energy supply rates, but if they still are using traditional energy sources such as coal and nuclear, the energy costs will continue to rise.
“I’m really excited about the future of some of these energy technologies,” he said. “We’ve got a great opportunity to drive innovation and demand that will result in our energy costs going down.”