Green initiatives remain popular despite lull in oil prices

If you live sustainably in Pennsylvania, you just might get a break on your home owner’s insurance.
The Donegal Insurance Group, based in Marietta east of York, will begin offering policies May 1 that offer a five percent discount on insurance for homes that use solar energy or a geothermal heat pump.
It is part of a growing trend for green initiatives to actually expand, despite relatively low gas prices. The commodity’s price still dictates interest in products like hybrid cars for some, but as oil seems destined to only increase in expense, the movement maintains.
The rise and fall conversation and market for an electric car is again on the rebound. The now 12-year-old YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School on North Broad Street, which focusing on sustainable construction, got a visit from Michelle Obama. Green businesses in our region won federal stimulus dollars.
Vice President Joe Biden was in University City last month to talk about our city’s role as a green tech jobs hub. Funding for the same green industries have come our way.
Valley Forge lawyer Audrey Zibelman co-founded Viridity Energy, which aims at profiting by selling unneeded energy to the power grid. The trick is using a mix of energy generation units like wind micro-turbines and solar cells to create a virtual power plant.
“It’s the Prius Effect. Prius cars tell you their level of efficiency, and drivers start looking at that efficiency level as much as they look at their miles per hour to determine how best to use their cars,”  Zibelman said. “Markets are like that. We all know that the more we know about pricing, the better we’re able to make decisions.”
High-cost energy scares have likely taught lessons of our future, making sustained efforts at increasing green attitudes a greater reality.