SEATTLE - Washington State's Green Power movement is hoping to energize Initiative-937, which would require large utilities to get 15 percent of their electric power from alternative sources.  

"We have a choice to make. Washington is growing, our demand for electricity is growing, and are real options for fulfilling that demand are fossil fuels like coal, or renewables like wind, solar, biodiesel," said Chris McCullough of the Yes On I-937 campaign.

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In Ellensberg, 127 wind towers will generate enough electricity to power 55,000 homes.

Backers of I-937 obviously prefer the latter and are now rolling out support from the medical community. Doctors like Pamela Laborde, who is also the parent of an asthmatic child, are climbing aboard.  

"I-937 is essentially a choice between clean energy or coal, and the medical benefits are huge," she said.

Washington State has very few coal-fired power plants and the leaders of the nation's most powerful environmental groups are in Seattle Thursday night to try to keep it that way.

"If we don't implement efficiency wind and solar, and we keep changing the climate so the snow pack melts, Washington is going to become dependent on coal because there won't be any alternative," said Carl Pope, national director of the Sierra Club.

I-937 would require the state's largest electric utilities to get 15 percent of its electricity from wind, solar and other alternative sources, and it would give them until the year 2020 to do it.

Opponents say forcing utilities to change their power base will cost all of us with higher utility bills. Some Eastern Washington utility companies are among the loudest I-937 critics.

"I-937 just simply isn't necessary because Washington is already the second-cleanest energy producing state in the nation," said Gina London, of the No On I-937 campaign.

But the big energy suppliers on this side of the mountains; Puget Sound Energy and Seattle City Light, are officially neutral on I-937. They admit there could be some problems with the deadlines but say they're moving that way anyway.

Both are heavily invested in alternatives like Central Washington's new Wild Horse Wind project near Ellensburg. But they are also heavily dependent on traditional sources like hydropower.

With I-937, voters will help them decide which sources to depend on in the future.