City of Philadelphia Encourages Cities, Organizations to Make City a Renewable Energy Leader

(Philadelphia, PA – June 20, 2012) – The City of Philadelphia announced today that it has launched its 2012 Green Power Community Challenge to encourage citizens and organizations to help Philadelphia become the largest EPA Green Power Community in America.

EPA Regional Administrator Shawn Garvin, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Phillies President David Montgomery all spoke at the launch event, spotlighting Philadelphia's tremendous success in calling on residents, businesses and organizations to partner with the City in leading the way in renewable energy use.

"The Green Power Community Challenge is an exciting campaign to encourage communities coast-to-coast to use renewable energy and fight climate change," says Jim Spencer, President and CEO of EverPower, one of the wind energy companies behind ChoosePAWind. "We encourage anyone interested in purchasing green energy to visit www.choosepawind.com – where they can not only choose a renewable wind energy supplier, but ‘buy local' and support wind energy projects, and the jobs that they provide throughout Pennsylvania."

2012 marks the second year of the national Green Power Community Challenge. Participating cities may win the competition in one of two ways: obtaining the highest total green power usage or the highest percentage of its total electricity use that is green power. Besides Philadelphia, Swarthmore is the only other Pennsylvania municipality participating in the competition.

In 2011, Washington, D.C won the highest total green power usage category and Brookville, MD was the winner in the percentage of total electricity use category.

What is ChoosePAWind? The mission of ChoosePAWind is to educate consumers about the environmental and economic benefits of powering your home or business with local, Pennsylvania-sourced wind energy. More support means more wind farms in PA, bringing more jobs, investment dollars, and economic stimulus to local communities while producing zero emissions. For more information, visit www.choosepawind.com.