Surprising Green Power Partners

The EPA released its list of the Top 25 Green Power Partners for 2005, and the list includes some surprising entries. Here is the list, with Power Partners appearing in order of purchase size:

You may have noticed a large increase in the number of television commercials for vehicles that are able to run on E85 fuel, manufactured in large part from corn. Auto manufacturers have been dragging their feet for decades, but it appears as if they're finally ready to become part of the Green Revolution. That's great news, of course, but there have been many other companies, organizations, and government agencies in all sectors of the American economy that have been using Green power for some time.

In 2005, the EPA released its list of the Top 25 Green Power Partners, and the list includes some surprising entries. Here is the list, with Power Partners appearing in order of purchase size:

1. U.S. Air Force  
 2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 
 3. Johnson & Johnson, Inc.  
 4. U.S. Department of Energy  
 5. The World Bank  
 6. Safeway, Inc.  
 7. U.S. General Services Administration, Region 2  
 8. Whole Foods Market  
 9. City of San Diego, CA  
 10. HSBC North America  
 11. New Jersey Consolidated Energy Savings Program  
 12. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Austin, TX Facilities  
 13. WhiteWave Foods  
 14. Austin, Texas, Independent School District  
 15. Staples, Inc.  
 16. Mohawk Fine Papers, Inc.  
 17. The Tower Companies  
 18. U.S. Army, Fort Carson, Colorado  
 19. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA  
 20. Montgomery County, MD  
 21. Hyatt Regency Reunion, Dallas, TX 
 22. Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA  
 23. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania  
 24. FedEx/Kinko's  
 25. East Bay Municipal Utility District, Main Wastewater Plant, Oakland, CA
The EPA's Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that encourages businesses, organizations, and agencies to use Green power in their day-to-day practice. When Green Partners sign on with the program, they pledge to supply a significant portion of their electricity needs with energy that has been produced by environmentally friendly means.

Although there will always be room for more growth, the program is expanding, and the EPA's list of Green Power Partners has grown to include more than 550, including a number of Fortune 500 companies; city, state, regional, and federal agencies; military establishments; trade associations; and several universities.

All of those figures, when coupled with the auto industry's increasing focus on producing vehicles that will run on E85, is enough to offer Green power enthusiasts a reason to at least become guardedly optimistic about the future of the planet and its inhabitants. Perhaps this is the beginning of the new world of Green power that visionaries have been talking about for decades. Only time will tell, but it's definitely a start.

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