Why is it Time to Go Green? Whether you consider yourself an environmentalist or not you have undoubtedly heard of the new found push for “going green”. Many people will cast this new information aside and go on with their lives saying to themselves, it costs too much or I’m not a tree hugger. This is definitely not the attitude to have because unbeknownst to most people costs have never been better and our energy situation has never been worse here in Pennsylvania. The upfront costs of the large systems that you can put in your home or business still can cost you thousands of dollars up front, but thanks to our Federal and State governments you can now get up to 40% of the purchase price back on your 2009 tax return. The credit is 30% back on your Federal Return and 10% back on your State return. On top of these credits, there are quite a few government programs available to lend you money for these improvements. In Pennsylvania, PA Home Energy has quite a few programs available that will lend you up to $35,000 if you qualify. If a large investment is still scaring you away from the green movement, there are many small things that can be done in order to help you become more energy efficient. One example is the change from a normal incandescent light bulb to a compact fluorescent light bulb. This change alone can save you thousands of dollars over a decade. Another small investment item that you could pursue as a home owner or a business owner is having an energy analysis or energy audit completed on your home or facility. This cost varies with the size of your facility but would be roughly a couple hundred dollars for a 2000 square foot home. This procedure would tell you all the areas where your facility or home were lacking efficiency and give you a list of possible improvements that can be made.  All of these things are great if you really want to improve the efficiency of your home or facility. But if you are fine with the way things are right now, then you can just sit back and keep the status quo, right? Wrong. If you haven’t heard it yet, deregulation is going to happen and it is going to happen soon. Depending on where you live the electric companies will be able to deregulate part of your bill beginning either January 1st of 2010 or 2011. All preliminary estimates have increases being in the 40 to 50% range, meaning that that $200 electric bill in February is now going to be $300. Knowing all this, the time is now to become “green”. The technology has never been better, the costs have never been lower, the incentives have never been more, and the cost of doing nothing has never been greater.