November 5, 2005—On behalf of Governor Edward G. Rendell, Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty announced that the Commonwealth has doubled its green electricity purchase to 10 percent from 5 percent, putting to use state resources to develop a sustainable energy infrastructure that will help create jobs, enhance homeland security and register significant environmental improvements in Pennsylvania.
The state Department of General Services and the Governors Green Government Council collaborated on contracts, which came in $163,693 below budget.
Thirty-five percent of this purchase of green electricity will come from new wind sources and 10 percent from burning waste coal in circulating fluidized bed facilities, which produces lower air emissions than conventional coal plants. The reminder will come from low-impact run-of-river hydroelectric power from the Susquehanna River.
The new purchase more than triples the amount of wind certificates purchased in the state while helping to clean up a major source of water pollution and reclaim otherwise useless land through the purchase of waste coal certificates. The action embraces one of the main environmental themes of the Rendell administration: namely, viewing environmentally harmful material as a potential resource that can be re-used rather than remain as a liability.
Governor Rendell already has launched some major initiatives to build a clean, indigenous, diversified energy industry in the state. Pennsylvania is among the national leaders with more than a dozen buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council under the internationally recognized Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. Another 78 Pennsylvania buildings are registered for LEED certification, five of which are state facilities.
DEP received the PennFuture award for the 100 percent green energy purchase in place at the new Southeast Regional Office, which opened earlier this year. The regional office has cut energy costs by about 35 percent, and the 85,000-square-foot building is using 58 percent less potable water than a similarly sized non-green building.
The Governor also revitalized the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority to provide tax-free bond financing for projects that develop, promote and more efficiently use alternative energy resources indigenous to the state. To further that effort, the Pennsylvania Energy Harvest grant program provides the last increment of financing for clean and renewable energy projects to be built in the Commonwealth from sources such as biomass, wind, solar, small-scale hydroelectric, landfill methane, coal-bed methane and waste-coal.
In addition, the Governor is moving on an Advanced Energy Portfolio Standard to ensure that in 10 years, 10 percent of all of the energy generated in the Commonwealth comes from clean, efficient sources.
For more information, visit DEP.
