Clean energy has arrived in North Carolina, and there are good faith reasons to support it.

Through the NC GreenPower program, individuals and faith communities can now bring a new kind of power and light into their homes and churches. By paying just an additional $4.00 per month, socially-responsible users can buy 100 kilowatt hours of clean energy created by wind, solar and other renewable sources. North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light has been actively involved in this exciting initiative since 2003 when we joined with environmentalists, utility representatives and industry advocates and would-be providers to create an accredited program that would provide incentives for North Carolina energy entrepreneurs and jobs for North Carolina citizens.

With the purchases by NC GreenPower supporters, solar and wind sources will be installed across the state, creating new jobs. Initially these cleanest sources will constitute a smaller portion of the mix, with methane —from existing landfills and animal production facilities— providing the bulk of the power. By paying suppliers to convert those wastes into energy, though, the program reduces the hog lagoon problem and turns garbage into energy, while funding the start-up and growth of wind and solar.

Offered through local utility providers, ratepayers may sign up through the twice-yearly card in the utility bill, on the website www.ncgreenpower.org, or by calling the NC GreenPower office at 919-716-6398 or 866-533-NCGP.  Congregations and small businesses as well as residential customers are qualified to participate in the Residential offering. This power is accredited as "green" by a third-party national certifying organization, Center for Resource Solutions.

There is a separate program for businesses using at least 10,000 kWh per month for a minimum period of a year. It includes some existing small hydroelectric and wood waste generation, cheaper sources that have more emissions and side effects than wind and solar, but much fewer than coal.

Not everyone thinks of electricity generation as an ethical issue or its purchase as a way to express their faith, but these days, energy issues have taken on more significance. How we live and how we use resources affect others, today and in the future. To love our neighbors as ourselves requires attention to matters we once took for granted.

Living tissues—trees, crops, and children’s lungs—are damaged by pollutants. Moreover, the warming climate warns of different and greater dangers: rising sea levels, stresses on plant and animal communities, and movement northward of tropical diseases and insects. Changing weather patterns will likely alter food production and water sources. These stresses on human communities have the potential to cause massive migrations and social unrest, sowing the seeds of war.

Coal-fired power plants and nuclear facilities produce energy in ways that pose significant safety risks, pollute the environment and contribute to climate change. Renewable energy is cleaner and can be locally produced.

The $4.00 per 100 kWh block of clean energy is an additional charge to your electricity bill. For example, if a home's usage for the month is 1200 kWh and the residents buy one block of NC GreenPower, they will pay their regular bill total plus $4.00. To buy 1200 kWh through NC GreenPower (12 blocks) costs $48.00 extra.

Because many problems facing the world are due to energy production and consumption, people of faith are called to address these issues in their own lives. Purchasing NC GreenPower is a convenient and economical step toward solutions.