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Green Mountain Energy customers receive the very same electricity TXU customers do. Once the power is on the grid, there is no way to separate it from one house to another.
NBC 5 talked to dozens of people who were all under the impression that if they buy clean energy, they get clean energy. They were surprised to learn that even if they buy green energy, chances are only 2 percent makes it into their homes.
"I thought that I was going to be different if I was a Green Mountain user," homeowner Matthew Simpson said.
Green Mountain uses terms such as pollution-free and 100-percent wind to attract environmentally conscious customers.
"When people sign up for our electricity, they're going to know it comes from clean sources," Mark Lamping said.
Many people don't know that Green Mountain Energy also buys some of its electricity from natural gas plants.
"To be competitive in the marketplace, we have to have natural gas at times," Lamping said.
He said Green Mountain buys renewable energy credits to offset the electricity produced by natural gas. He said it was common knowledge, but the practice wasn't mentioned in the media packet he provided to NBC 5.
Green Mountain said people who sign up for clean-energy plans create more demand, which means more wind farms would hopefully be built in the future. Currently, electric providers purchase all of the wind energy produced in Texas.
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