Climbing the Green Mountain

By Robert Wilonsky Mon., Aug. 14 2006 at 2:31 PM

Categories: News

All I know about Green Mountain Energy's this: It's supposed to provide cleaner electricity "from less-polluting sources like wind, water, solar, biomass, geothermal, and natural gas," and that there's always some slightly bearded dude on the sidewalk trying to get me to sign up every time I go to CD World in exchange for a hacky sack that looks like a minature globe. Well, today I know three things: According to Business Wire, a collection of press releases issued every day, Green Mountain has signed up some pretty well-known customers in these parts, among them ClubCorp (which owns, among its myriad country clubs and golf courses, Brookhaven Country Club, Trophy Club and Las Colinas Country Club), FedEx Kinko's (which is going to use Green Mountain at 56 of its Texas locations), the Hyatt Regency Dallas at Reunion and Hyatt Regency DFW International Airport, John Deere (for its distribution facility in northwest Dallas), Recreational Equipment Inc. and Rooms To Go (which will use the company at 11 of its area locations).

A Friend of Unfair Park who looked into using Green Mountain says the conversion to green energy ain't cheap; it's actually a little more expensive than using, oh, TXU, for instance, but you're supposed to sleep better knowing you're not the sumbitch killing the planet. But how can anything be more expensive than TXU? Speaking of, I will field offers from other electricity providers offering me substantial savings on my electricity bill, which I fully expect to run upwards of $33,285 this month. --Robert Wilonsky

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