The best part about Gov. John Baldacci’s announcement Monday encouraging Maine citizens to buy renewable, local power is that switching is easy. Too many environmental programs make demands that seem reasonable to advocates but turn out to require changes in lifestyle or costs too much. The Maine Green Power Connection program is a simple way to support Maine businesses, cut pollution and create a broader diversity of energy choices.

Green Power is a product of Maine Renewable Energy (www.energymaine.com). It is an environmentally friendlier alternative to the standard offer to which almost all residential electricity users subscribe. MRE buys power from Maine small hydroelectric generators and from biomass plants. With at least half its power coming from hydro, its pollution levels for each kilowatt of energy produced is much lower. For instance, MRE calculates that the typical Maine household using the standard offer is responsible for producing 4,500 pounds of carbon dioxide annually; an MRE customer would produce only 400 pounds. On a larger scale, Gov. Baldacci signed a letter of intent to purchase MRE electricity for more than 700 small state electricity contracts (700 contracts, by the way, sounds like an opportunity for efficiency); when fully in place, these contracts will reduce pollutants in Maine by 4.6 million pounds of carbon dioxide, 5,500 pounds of nitrogen oxides and 18,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide.

Green Power costs more than the standard offer – with the current difference at 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour, that equals for the average residential customer about 25 cents a day or $7.50 per month. That is a small price for some remarkable benefits, but for those who find it substantial, they might consider switching to this cleaner, local power and at the same time investing in low-energy light bulbs or, when it comes time to replace appliances, choosing the energy efficient ones and offsetting the cost.

The worst reason to switch to renewable power is that the war in Iraq may be about oil. It isn’t, although Middle East oil drives so many U.S. policies and makes the nation vulnerable to interruptions or threatened interruptions in the supply of this major source of energy. Using alternatives, and keeping more of the state’s energy dollars in Maine, strengthens the local economy. But the real benefits are environmental, and while limited by the capacity of the local generators, the potential pollution savings are still impressive.