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Environmental Groups Urge Federal Government to Buy Green Power
October 2, 1998
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - In a letter sent today to the Clinton Administration, environmental groups urged the White House to direct federal procurement officials to buy green power. The letter -- signed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Sierra Club, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Center for Resource Solutions -- stated that federal green power purchases could create an important downpayment on reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Such action by the federal government could also demonstrate a positive link between electric utility restructuring and efforts to clean the air and reduce the threat of global warming.
The groups emphasized that the new market for renewable energy technologies created by federal green power purchases "would demonstrate leadership that other electricity customers will follow. The resulting new demand will transform new energy markets, help ensure U.S. leadership in a growing high technology industry, and promote a host of clean air and greenhouse gas reduction goals."
More than half of the electricity produced in the United States comes from coal, oil and other fossil fuels. Fossil fuels used to produce electricity account for 70% of U.S. sulfur dioxide, 34% of carbon dioxide, 33% of nitrogen oxides, 28% of particulate, and 23% of toxic heavy metal pollution. The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that as many as 64,000 premature deaths each year result from particulate air pollution.
Electricity produced using green, renewable energy resources such as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and hydropower dramatically reduce these environmental and public health impacts. Renewable energy technologies are making significant new contributions in serving global electricity needs, based on recent technological advances and public policy support.
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