Wells Fargo Tops US Buyers of Green Power - EPA
Date: 31-Jan-07
Country: US
US bank Wells Fargo & Co. annually purchases 550 million kilowatt hours, or 42 percent, of its electricity from wind power sources, as of early January, the Environmental Protection Agency said late Monday. It was the first time a company bested a government agency as the top buyer of clean energy on the EPA list.
Renewable sources of power provide only a few percentage points of overall energy used in the United States, the world's top energy consumer.
Interest in renewables is growing, however, as domestic oil production falls and concerns rise about emissions of heat-trapping gases from the burning of fossil fuels. The EPA's top 25 purchasers of green power buy more than 4 billion kwh of green power annually, or about as much to power more than 350,000 average homes, the EPA said. The total amount was up from 3.3 billion kwh in the January 2006 report.
"Purchasing green power is good for the environment and supports our nation's efforts to increase the diversity in our energy supplies," said Bill Wehrum, acting assistant administrator for EPA's office of air and radiation.
Whole Foods Market Inc., the second leading purchaser, buys 463 million kwh, or 100 percent, of its power from a variety of renewable sources.
The US Air Force is third, down from No. 1 in previous reports, buying 458 million kwh, or 4 percent, of its power from biomass, geothermal, solar and wind. In the EPA's last report in September, the Air Force was buying more than 1 billion kwh of green power annually.
The EPA itself buys 330 million kwh, or 100 percent, of its power from green sources, while at the US Department of Energy, 165 million kwh, or 3 percent of its power, comes from green sources.
The list can be viewed at: epa.gov/greenpower/partners/top25.htm
