SALT LAKE CITY — According to the Southern Utah Wildness Alliance (SUWA), the fight to preserve public lands takes more than bills in Congress or motions in the courts — it also rests upon the daily decisions people make, such as choosing renewable Blue Sky wind energy.

SUWA recently signed on to purchase 11 blocks of Rocky Mountain Power’s renewable Blue Sky wind power each month, making the environmental advocacy organization a champion-level Blue Sky supporter. The environmental benefits are equivalent to planting 3.63 acres of trees or not driving 19,800 miles for a year. In addition, SUWA’s purchase prevents 9.24 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

For nearly 20 years, SUWA and others have worked to protect Utah’s remaining 9 million acres of wild desert lands — lands owned by the American public and administered by the Bureau of Land Management.

"It’s the choices we make daily that can undermine what we otherwise fight to protect," said Heidi McIntosh, SUWA’s conservation director. "Buying renewable energy is a choice that we at SUWA have made because we want to demonstrate that we can help generate energy without harming our public lands through drilling and mining."

Rocky Mountain Power invests in other renewable power projects in addition to Blue Sky. It owns nearly 33 megawatts (mw) of wind energy from Wyoming Wind Development and gets 23 mw from its Blundell geothermal plant in Utah. The company also purchases 50 mw of wind power from the newly constructed Rock River I facility in Wyoming. Rocky Mountain Power also has an unregulated affiliate, PacifiCorp Power Marketing, Inc., which sells power from the new 263-mw Stateline wind farm on the border of Washington and Oregon. In total, Blue Sky has led to the direct purchase of 3 mw of additional wind power from Wyoming Wind.

Rocky Mountain Power launched Blue Sky in 2000 to give customers an opportunity to purchase pollution-free wind power. It gives customers the option of purchasing 100-kilowatt hour (kwh) "blocks" of renewable energy for $2.95 per month in addition to their regular electricity usage.

Blue Sky recently received national recognition — climbing from 7 ^th to 6 ^th on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Top 10 list of utility green programs in terms of customer participation. In Utah, 3,697 residential and business customers participate in Blue Sky, bringing the total number in western states to 5,234.

"The benefits of wind power are many, as wind does not generate air pollution or carbon dioxide emissions," said Sarah Wright, coordinator of the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies’ Utah Wind Power Campaign. "The more energy that we can put onto the grid that comes from renewable resources, the less we need from fossil fuel and hydroelectric generating plants. That’s the idea: displacing less environmentally friendly energy with power provided by wind, solar and geothermal generation."

Blue Sky customers can rest assured that their money goes to new wind power. Not only is Blue Sky overseen by state regulators, it is certified by Renew 2000, an organization formed to ensure consumers get what they are paying for when they buy renewable power products. Blue Sky meets their rigorous standards and is reviewed annually.

 

About Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) works to preserve the outstanding wilderness at the heart of the Colorado plateau, and the management of these lands in their natural state for the benefit of all Americans. SUWA promotes local and national recognition of the region’s unique character through research and public education. It supports both administrative and legislative initiatives to permanently protect the Colorado Plateau’s wild places with the National Park and National Wilderness Preservation Systems or by other protective designations on both the local and national level.

About Rocky Mountain Power

Rocky Mountain Power is an operating division of PacifiCorp, one of the West’s leading energy companies serving more than 1.5 million electric customers in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington and California. For more information or to sign up for Blue Sky, call 1-800-842-8458 or e-mail bluesky@pacificorp.com or visit Rocky Mountain Power on the Web at www.rockymtnpower.net .

About the Utah Wind Power Campaign

The Utah Wind Power Campaign is project of the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies, a non-profit environmental policy and law organization seeking to increase public awareness and use of pollution-free wind generated electricity. For more information about the campaign call (801) 673-7156 or visit www.utahgreenpower.org.

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Media inquiries:Newsdesk@PacifiCorp.com