Five Power Companies Commit to Clean Energy, Cap Greenhouse Gases

February 18, 2004

Five U.S. power companies have committed to use clean energy sources and to cap their carbon dioxide emissions, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced on February 11th. The five companies include Austin Energy of Texas; Burlington Electric Department of Vermont; the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) of California; Waverly Light and Power of Iowa; and FPL Group, Inc., which operates Florida Power and Light. The five companies joined the "WWF PowerSwitch! Challenge," which calls for power companies to support binding limits on national carbon dioxide emissions and requires them to undertake one or more of the following action targets: using renewable energy as the source for 20 percent of their electricity sold by 2020, increasing their energy efficiency by 15 percent by 2020, or retiring the least efficient half of coal generation by 2020. SMUD committed to the renewable energy goal, FPL Group and Waverly Light and Power committed to the energy efficiency goal, and Austin Energy and Burlington Electric committed to both of those goals. See the WWF press release.