Bay Area Churches Going Green Reaches 15

Business Wire, August 27, 1999

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 27, 1999--

Episcopal Power & Light (EP&L), an initiative created by the Reverend Sally Bingham of the San Francisco Bay Area-based Diocese of California, has added two more parishes to its growing roster of clean power churches.

St. James of San Francisco and St. Ambrose of Foster City both voted earlier this month to switch to Green Mountain.com's 100% renewable energy product, which consists of geothermal, biomass and environmentally responsible small hydro power.

The switch lowers the price the two churches previously paid for generic electricity by one to two percent. Since the restructuring of California's power market last year, increasing amounts of out-of-state coal have been added to generic electricity sold through the Power Exchange, the state's spot market that serves over 70 percent of the state's consumers.

Coal is the dirtiest of fossil fuels, contributing large amounts of carbon dioxide, an air pollutant linked to global climate change.

"Saving the environment is very central to what we do here at the parish. It's so wonderful to be able to make a difference," said Mary Moore Gaines, the pastor of St. James. "One has to be appropriately cautious that one switches to a viable and authentic supplier. But we did our homework and chose Green Mountain," she added.

"We wanted to join the other Episcopal churches and help clean up the air," said Hank Rennagel, chairman of St. Ambrose's building and grounds committee. "We are all connected to the environment and we need to save it for the people who will be living here in the future," he added.

EP&L now claims 15 Bay Area churches among those that have voted to switch to clean, renewable energy sources. The other clean power churches are: St. Aidan's, St. Gregory, Trinity, St. Luke's, St. Holy Innocents and Christ Church of San Francisco; St. John's and St. Paul's of Oakland; Good Shepherd of Berkeley; St. John's of Clayton; St. Christopher's of San Lorenzo; Christ the Lord of Pinole; and Our Savior of Mill Valley.

Last October, California's Episcopal Diocesan Convention adopted a resolution creating EP&L that suggested each of California's 87 Episcopal churches located within the San Francisco Bay Area buy clean, renewable power.

Bingham negotiated an arrangement with Green Mountain whereby each church that signs up for green power from the company receives a $250 donation or an energy audit of their building; for each parishioner, the church gets another $35. While initially being launched in California, EP&L is a national initiative to promote green power co-directed by Steve MacAusland of the Massachusetts Diocese.

EP&L has also recently helped negotiate an arrangement with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). Under the ground-breaking proposal, LADWP will supply up to 150 Episcopal churches with green electricity. Under LADWP's green power program, 20% of the electricity will be generated by new wind, geothermal and other renewable energy sources.

Unlike green power programs offered by the private sector, all of the accounts of participating churches will be aggregated by LADWP and treated as if they were one huge facility. This will enable the churches to qualify for rate discounts usually reserved for large commercial customers.