No, Kermit, it actually is pretty easy being green...

I just subscribed to our electric utility's green energy option. This basically means that evil, evil ConEd will now supply our electricity from a green energy source. Evil, evil ConEd will continue to bill us on one consolidated invoice, but instead of the money going to evil, evil ConEd it will go to the green electricity provider of my choosing - with a nominal distribution charge still going to evil, evil ConEd, a'course. We'll only be paying a penny more/kilowatt hour. Pennies, people. Pennies to help out Mother Nature. Who, incidentally, we as a species have been screwing since we lit that first fire. And then came cars. You know the rest.

I chose to get 35% wind power/65% river-to-run hydropower instead of fossil fuel electricity from a conventional source. All the power comes from New York state, which is also a cool thing. The hydropower comes from facilities that transform the motion of the river water into electricity without rerouting or destroying natural habitats and the wind power comes from wind turbine parks all over the state like the one in the picture.

Some people have fought the installation of turbine parks in upstate NY for various reasons - not the least of which is property value. In spite of the objections, wind power is a growing source of energy in the state and that's got to be better for us all than burning ever increasing amounts of fossil fuels and creating massive amounts of carbon emissions... regardless of what it does to property values upstate. In this trade off game I'm betting on the turbines.

In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that evil, evil ConEd provides a number of green power suppliers to choose from and they make it super easy to switch. They even noted the ease of switching to green power in this month's bill. I guess maybe that means they can be upgraded to simply evil ConEd. I like progress.

P.S. I still feel that Strip Bar class in my thighs. Great googly moogly.