Ed Loechler, an activist from Brookline, knows first-hand the challenge of trying to persuade people to put their money where their environmental ideals might be.
For several years, the Boston University biology professor has been going door to door in his neighborhood to plug the NStar program. When a door opened one night last week, he urged a young man to sign up. “This is the single, simplest way you could cut a lot of carbon dioxide from your household,’’ Loechler said.
But after he explained that enrolling would add between 15 percent and 30 percent to his neighbor’s electric bill, the 22-year-old thanked him for promoting what sounded like a good idea. “But it’s probably too much,’’ the man said.
It was a response Loechler, who moonlights as coordinator of Climate Action Brookline, has heard over and over again. “I’m sympathetic to people who don’t want to spend money,’’ he said, “but it can be discouraging.’’
When NStar announced the program in 2007, it launched a public relations campaign that included billboards, advertisements on their trucks and website, bill inserts, and significant media attention.
Utility executives explained how their customers would be able to buy half or all their power from wind farms in Maine and upstate New York, for up to 7 percent more than they would pay for regular service that came from such energy sources as coal and natural gas. Generating electricity from such fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which scientists say contributes to global warming.
NStar signed two 10-year contracts to buy 60 megawatts of power, enough to power tens of thousands of homes and small businesses, or 2 percent of the utility’s overall demand. At the time, NStar chief executive Thomas J. May said he hoped the program would be oversubscribed and that the company would have to buy more renewable energy.
