Customers will

be able to begin subscribing to a limited number of 150 kilowatt-hour

blocks of green power from participating Georgia electric cooperatives:

Carroll, Cobb, Coweta-Fayette, Habersham, Irwin, Jackson, Lamar, Ocmulgee,

Sawnee, Snapping Shoals, Tri-County and Walton EMCs: Coastal Electric

Cooperative; Jefferson Energy Cooperative; GreyStone Power Corporation

and Flint Energies.

In conjunction

with the opening of the subscriptions, Governor Roy Barnes recognized

the importance of the co-ops' green power initiative when he designated

Earth Day as Green Power Day in a proclamation ceremony at his office

April 8.

"The participants

in Green Power EMC believe, like most of the people they serve, that we

are all stewards of the earth and have a responsibility to find ways of

producing cleaner, more environmentally friendly energy," said Green

Power EMC President and Coweta-Fayette CEO Michael Whiteside.

"Through

their participation in our generation projects, our member EMCs can offer

their customers the power to choose how some or all of their electricity

is generated."

Coweta-Fayette

EMC will sign up customers on a first-come, first-serve basis for their

allocation of the eight megawatts of power generated by Green Power EMC

in the first year ­ enough green power to serve about 30,000 customers

of the more than 900,000 Georgia homes, factories and farms served by

the 16 EMCs.

The program

according to the EPA will have the same environmental benefits as taking

114,400 cars off the road or planting 156,000 acres of forest.

Using renewable

electric generation sources, like biomass, wind, solar and low-impact

hydro, the non-profit Green Power EMC will begin supplying "green"

power to the 16 EMCs this fall. Generation will initially come from reclaimed

methane gas at three north and middle Georgia landfills. The sites will

be at the Richland Creek Road landfill in Gwinnett County, the Roberts

Road landfill in Fayette County and the Taylor County landfill.

In use since

the late 1970s, this method of producing biomass electricity is regarded

as one of the most mature and successful in the green power field. Methane

gas results from the natural breakdown of landfill wastes. The recovered

gas is sold to gas-to-energy plants to fuel electric generators.

Green Power

EMC projects that solar and low-impact hydroelectric energy sources will

be added to its generating capacity in 2003.

"Surveys

of EMC customers indicate that they are interested in green energy and

are willing to pay a bit more for environmentally-friendly power. The

slightly higher cost of green energy results from the more expensive technology

required to capture renewable energy resources," said Whiteside.

"And while

no energy source is impact-free, every kilowatt of green power generated

offsets other forms of electric generation, such as coal and oil, resulting

in less pollution for Georgia's residents."

Whiteside said

each EMC will price their green power offering based on generating expenses

and administrative costs.

Electric cooperative

customers who are interested in signing up for green power should contact

Coweta-Fayette EMC at 770-502-0226 or by e-mail at www.utility.org .

Coweta-Fayette

EMC provides electricity to members in Coweta, Fayette, South Fulton,

Meriwether, Heard and parts of Clayton and Spalding counties.