Scotts Contracting St.Louis Design Build Sustainable Building Contractor-providing diversified quality service at a fair price. For all of your remodeling, repairs, and maintenance needs.
The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Green Power Partnership has released its latest list of top green power purchasers. Retaining their places at the top of the list were Intel Corporation, Kohl's Department Stores, Whole Foods Market, City of Houston, and Dell Inc.
There were a number of newcomers to the Top 50 list including: Washington, D.C. (No. 14), TD Bank, N.A. (No. 15), the state of Illinois (No. 23), Pearson, Inc. (No. 27), Chicago Public Schools (No. 35), and Harris N.A. (No. 42). BD (No. 19) and the Port of Portland (No. 49) both rose in the rankings by nearly doubling their green power purchases.
Collectively, the top 50 largest purchases amount to more than 12 billion kWh annually, or approximately 70 percent of the green power commitments made by all EPA Green Power Partners.
EPA's Green Power Partnership works with more than 1,200 partner organizations that voluntarily purchase green power to reduce the environmental impacts of conventional electricity use. Overall, the partners buy more than 17 billion kWh of green power annually.
On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 3:48 PM, Dave Boundy, Repower America <info@repoweramerica.org> wrote:
Dear Scotts,
If one law helped shrink the hole in the ozone layer, most people would think it was good.
If the same law helped save our forests from acid rain, removed toxic lead from our gasoline and lowered the number of our children developing asthma, most people would consider it great.
And if that same exact law saved our country nearly $22 trillion over 20 years, most people would call it a landmark piece of legislation and a model of American leadership.
That law exists -- it's called the Clean Air Act. But right now, lobbyists from the fossil fuel industry are trying to gut this crucial law and roll back decades of progress for our economy, our health and our environment. Tell big polluters that clean air belongs to us -- and it isn't for sale.
The Clean Air Act has received overwhelming bipartisan support over the years. In fact, one of the biggest updates to the law was signed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990.
Yet the fossil fuel industry is targeting one of the provisions that makes this law so successful -- the section that empowers the EPA to limit greenhouse gas pollution threatening our public health and welfare. They're trying to weaken the law that's given us cleaner cars, lower rates of cancer and a huge increase in air quality.
Add your voice to the new video and take a stand for clean air by midnight on Friday, September 10:
We'll select the best submissions to be in our final video.
The Clean Air Act is our last, best line of defense against the fossil fuel industry. Supporters like us need to take action today and save this vitally important law.
Thanks for getting involved at this critical moment,
Dave Boundy Campaign Manager The Climate Protection Action Fund's Repower America campaign
Contributions or gifts to the Climate Protection Action Fund are not tax deductible.
According to a recent report in Newsweek, over the last year and a half, the oil and gas industry has spent a staggering $514 million on direct lobbying, disinformation campaigns, sleazy advertising, and other pressure tactics, all designed with one goal in mind – to paralyze climate action.
Having won the battle in the Senate to defeat comprehensive legislation, those same extravagantly funded forces have turned their sights on the EPA.
Last year, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it would begin reducing global warming pollution from automobiles and large power plants under the Clean Air Act.
While these steps do not diminish the need for a national climate law, EPA action will keep us on track to hit our critical short-term emissions targets—and buy us more time to keep fighting for national climate and energy legislation.
But now, under unrelenting lobbying pressure from the big polluters and their lobbyists, Senators from both sides of the aisle have proposed legislation that would strip EPA of its authority to regulate climate pollution.
The climate crisis ultimately comes down to science, not politics. And while the politics of global warming are uncertain, the science is not: 2010 is on pace to become the hottest year ever recorded, following the hottest decade on record. Glacial and polar ice continues to melt at astonishing rates. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent.
We need your continued activism to defend EPA's efforts to protect Americans from the catastrophic threat of runaway global warming.
Thank you for refusing to give up. In the end, that will make all the difference.
Thanks for all you do!
Sam Parry Director, Online Membership and Activism
Environmental Defense Action Fund 1875 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 600 Washington, DC 20009 1-800-591-1919
Average regulated retail electricity price rose faster than inflation in 2009
Jersey City, N.J., August 20, 2010 — A recent special report from Regulatory Research Associates, a division of SNL Energy, reveals that the average regulated retail price of electricity rose in 2009 at a rate greater than inflation.
Using data from SNL Energy and the U.S. Department of Commerce, the RRA report shows that the average bundled price to ultimate customers in 2009 rose 2.1 percent to 9.87 cents/KWH compared to a 1.2 percent increase in GDP-PI, a real price increase of 0.9 percent.
Since 2004, in inflation-adjusted terms, prices have risen 15 percent to ultimate customers. Residential prices have also increased 15 percent, while commercial and industrial prices have risen 9 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
"There are several driving forces behind this phenomenon, including the expiration of restructuring-related generation rate freezes and the associated implementation of competitive wholesale procurement," said Lillian Federico, senior vice president at RRA. "Increasing environmental compliance costs, utility infrastructure investment, and rising employee benefit and health care costs have also played a part. As a result, we expect electric prices to continue to rise at a rate that exceeds inflation, as utilities seek recovery from regulators of these costs."
"Average Regulated Retail Price of Electricity: 2009 & Comparative Historical Data" provides details concerning the price paid for electricity by retail customers of the major investor-owned electric utilities in the United States during 2009, 2008, and 2007, and a broad overview of historical trends in electric prices back to 1974.
SNL Energy, a division of SNL Financial, provides comprehensive intelligence for the power, natural gas and coal markets through an online service that integrates news, data, analytics and research.
RRA provides independent research and consultation on electric utility securities and regulation, with a reputation for unmatched expertise in both areas. Acquired by SNL Energy in 2005, RRA remains the industry leader on regulatory issues affecting utilities.
