EPA publishes list of top 25 green
power partners
Wells Fargo & Company joined EPA’s top-25
green power purchasers as the top corporation on the list, edging
out other big corporate names such as Whole Foods, Johnson &
Johnson, and Starbucks. EPA announced its quarterly list of organizations
that purchase electricity generated from clean, renewable resources
such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass and low-impact
hydro.
EPA’s Green Power Partnership is comprised
of a diverse array of organizations that voluntarily purchase green
power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with
conventional electricity use.
Current Green Power Partners are purchasing more than 7 billion
kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy, an increase of nearly
240 percent since the end of 2004. This amount of kilowatt hours
is equivalent to the energy needed to power more than half-a-million
average American homes annually.
Green power currently accounts for nearly two
percent of America’s electricity supply. Voluntary purchases
play an important role in accelerating the development of new renewable
energy sources nationwide.
Once again, the United States Air Force leads
the national green power top 25 list, purchasing more than 1 billion
kWh annually for Air Force bases across the country. Whole Foods
Market is ranked No. 3 behind newcomer Wells Fargo. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency is ranked No. 4, with Johnson & Johnson rounding
out the top five.
New to the top 25 list is the No. 2 purchaser,
Wells Fargo & Company, making it the largest United States corporate
purchaser of green power. Over the next three years, Wells Fargo
will purchase 550 million kWh of clean, renewable energy, an amount
that totals nearly 40 percent of Wells Fargo’s electricity
use. This purchase alone will prevent the emissions of more than
380,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year – the equivalent of
carbon dioxide emissions from more than 75,000 cars. |
