WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its list of the top 50 partner organizations using the most renewable electricity to help reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and protect people’s health. Green power is generated from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydropower. Purchases of green power help accelerate the nation’s voluntary green power market and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful pollutants that threaten Americans’ health from the power sector.

EPA’s Green Power Partnership’s largest single purchaser of green power, Intel Corporation, increased its commitment by nearly doubling its annual green power usage to more than 2.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh). This is the largest green power purchase to date in the partnership, and is equivalent to avoiding the carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) emissions from the electricity use of more than 218,000 average American homes.

“EPA’s Green Power partners are tapping into America’s growing clean energy market and powering the economy of the future,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson on Tuesday. “Investments like these are smart for business, foster growth in the green energy sector and help protect our health through cleaner air.”

Kohl’s, second on the national top 50 list, joined Intel as the only two partners using more than 1 billion kWh of green power. Kohl’s increased its green power purchase to more than 1.4 billion kWh of green power annually. Staples more than doubled its green power commitment and Sony Corporation of America nearly doubled its green power purchase. Best Buy, Suffolk County, N.Y., and Drexel University are all making first time appearances on the national top 50 list. Collectively, these top 50 partner organizations are using more than 13.5 billion kWh of green power annually, equivalent to the CO2 produced from the electricity use of more than 1.1 million average American homes.

EPA’s Green Power Partnership works with more than 1,300 partner organizations to voluntarily purchase green power to reduce the environmental impacts of conventional electricity use. Overall, partners are using more than 19.2 billion kWh of green power annually, equivalent to avoiding the CO2 emissions from the electricity use of nearly 1.7 million average American homes.

More information on the top 50 list:
http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/toplists/top50.htm

More information on EPA’s Green Power Partnership:
http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/