February 11, 2004 News Media Release

Austin Energy one of 5 power companies nationally to support limits on CO2 emissions

Austin Energy and four other electric power companies from across the United States today answered a challenge from the World Wildlife Fund to become the first U.S. power companies to support a mandatory cap on carbon dioxide emissions and confirm their commitment to clean energy.

By switching to clean renewable energy and increasing energy efficiency through innovative technologies and processes, each of these five power companies - Austin Energy, Burlington Electric Department, FPL Group, Inc., Sacramento Municipal Utility District, and Waverly Light and Power - will significantly reduce CO 2 emissions.

The WWF PowerSwitch! Challenge is for power companies to support binding limits on national CO 2 emissions and undertake one or more of the following action targets: renewables as the source for 20 percent of their electricity sold by 2020, or increase energy efficiency by 15 percent by 2020, or retire the least efficient half of coal generation by 2020.

Under commitments to WWF, renewable sources of energy may include solar, wind, sustainably harvested biomass, low-impact small-scale hydropower, geothermal, and methane recovery from landfills or farms. Energy-efficiency efforts may include such innovative approaches as improving energy efficiency in power production, upgrading distribution technologies, transmission optimization efforts, or reducing overall demand from customers in a service territory as part of a strategy to diminish the need for new electricity generation capacity.

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For more information, contact Ed Clark, Public Information.
Phone: (512) 322-6514
Pager: (512) 802-2000