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EPA Administrator Christie Whitman in Philadelphia for Green Energy Contract at Liberty Bell Pavilion

Release Date: 9/13/2002
Contact Information: Donna Heron, 215-814-5113

Donna Heron, 215-814-5113

PHILADELPHIA – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency welcomed Independence National Park into it s Green Power Partnership with the park’s commitment to purchase 9.45 million kilowatts of renewable electricity from Green Mountain Energy Company.

“Conventional electricity generation is the single largest industrial source of air pollution in America,” said EPA Administrator Christie Whitman. “President Bush’s historic national energy strategy wisely includes measures to help promote energy conservation and reduce our reliance on conventional electricity sources.”

Under the three-year contract with Green Mountain Energy Company, the Liberty Bell Pavilion, the Liberty Bell Center, the First Bank of the United States and other historic buildings in Philadelphia will be powered with 100 percent renewable electricity from sources such as wind and solar power.

“Increasing the usage of alternative and renewable energy sources is not only an integral part of our energy future, but our environmental future as well,” Whitman said. “Using green power, instead of conventional electricity, reduces harmful emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury. So the green power purchase being announced today is something that should make us all breathe easier.”

For the next three years Independence National Park – and other federal facilities in the Philadelphia region – have made a commitment to purchase more than 11 million kilowatt hours of green power. That’s roughly the amount of power 440 average homes would use over a three-year period.

EPA’s Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program designed to reduce the environmental impact of electricity generation by promoting renewable energy. Since its inception just one year ago, 70 organizations, including industrial companies, cities, states, universities and federal agencies, have switched to green power.

For more information about the Green Power Partnership, check out www.epa.gov.grnpower.