NEW ORLEANS, March 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Taking advantage of an opportunity to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and work toward the company's voluntary greenhouse gas reduction commitment, Entergy has purchased emission reduction credits totaling 100,000 metric tons.
The purchase of these credits was made available through Environmental Resources Trust by Nike Inc., which verified and registered the credit as a result of exceeding its carbon footprint goals with the World Wildlife Fund's Climate Savers program.
"Much of the Entergy service area is particularly vulnerable to the predicted effects of climate change," said Entergy Director of Corporate Environmental Programs Brent Dorsey. "Our service area has many low-income customers who are least able to bear the costs of recovering from disastrous climatic effects, so Entergy is particularly interested in reducing greenhouse gas emissions."
The utility further believes that greenhouse gas regulation is needed to provide market certainty and send the right pricing signals to utilities as they look to replace aging generation capacity and meet a demand that is expected to increase by up to 50 percent over the next 30 years.
"The key to shifting markets and the economy to a more carbon-neutral position includes a robust carbon offset market to bridge the gap between now- a time in which no cost-effective, bolt-on carbon capture and sequestration technology exists-and a future in which technological innovations including new nuclear, clean coal, renewable fuels and energy efficiency measures will make it possible to generate zero and low-emission electricity economically," Dorsey said.
Entergy's ongoing efforts to seek sustainable environmental solutions include:
* Entergy was the first U.S. utility to voluntarily stabilize GHG
emissions. Entergy surpassed its first commitment to stabilize GHG
emissions at 2000 levels through 2005 by 23 percent while increasing
megawatt hour sales by 21 percent for the period from 2001 to 2005.
The company has further committed to reducing its GHG emissions to 20
percent below 2000 levels through 2010.
* Entergy is the only U.S. utility to be named to the Dow Jones
Sustainability Index for five consecutive years, and the only U.S.
utility to be named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index-World for
2006.
* Entergy is the second cleanest utility generator among the top 10
generators. This is due to the company's clean generation portfolio,
which includes significant nuclear and natural gas generation.
* As an active proponent of mandatory GHG emission caps, Entergy
supports a fuel-neutral, market-based cap and trade approach that
provides credit for early action. A mandatory approach is necessary
to help provide regulatory certainty for decision makers as the
industry plans for significant growth in demand and capital stock
turnover of the generation fleet.
* Entergy's second GHG commitment includes more than $3 million in
funding to actively participate in GHG offset markets. The funding
will be used to help develop new markets, products and innovations to
help address GHG emission reductions.
Created in 1996 as an offshoot of Environmental Defense, Environmental Resources Trust (http://www.ert.net/) is a nonprofit organization that harnesses economic forces to protect the environment, specifically to promote markets for renewable energy and climate change protection. The goal of ERT's EcoRegistry(R) program is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and climate change by measuring and registering emission reductions of companies and governments.
Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.6 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $10 billion and approximately 14,000 employees.
Entergy's online address is http://www.entergy.com/ .
