“We think good corporate citizenship includes an element of environmental stewardship,” said Jeffery Dye, president and chief executive officer of GE Consumer Finance’s corporate card unit. “The Blue Sky program is a tangible, measurable and an easy-to-implement best practice for Utah businesses.”

GE’s Corporate Payment Services provides corporate travel, purchasing and stored value/payroll card and electronic settlement systems. While the company already had a strong recycling and waste-reduction program in place, it saw renewable power as another opportunity to have a positive impact on the environment.

GE’s Corporate Payment Services is buying 565 blocks of wind power each month through Utah Power’s new Blue Sky QS program for commercial & industrial customers. Blue Sky QS (quantity savings) allows business customers to buy renewable energy from Utah Power for less, providing they purchase at least 101 blocks of Blue Sky per month for a year. Blue Sky is sold in 100-kilowatt hour increments called “blocks.”

The environmental impact of GE’s Blue Sky purchase is significant: it is offsetting the release of 678 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, which is the same benefit as taking 116 cars off the road or planting 22 acres of trees each month.

“For several years, we've had an active recycling program on-site, and have taken steps to reduce our use of printing and paper; encouraging employees to work digitally rather than in hard copy,” Dye said. “With Blue Sky, we have an easy way to keep the momentum going for a positive environmental impact.”

Blue Sky also gives residential customers a way to grow the demand for wind energy and to take advantage of its environmental benefits. Utah Power sells Blue Sky for $1.95 per block per month, in addition to a customer’s regular monthly electric bill. Enrollment is optional and customers can increase their participation or withdraw at any time.

Buying just one block of Blue Sky has the same environmental benefit of either not driving 2,500 miles or planting a half-acre of trees. Most of Blue Sky comes from wind power. Wind is an attractive form of energy generation because it helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Wind produces no air pollutants, wastewater, smog or acid rain.

For more information or to sign up for Blue Sky, call 1-800-842-8458 or e-mail bluesky@pacificorp.com. Customers can sign up online at www.utahpower.net/bluesky.

More about Utah Power and Blue Sky

Utah Power is the state’s largest electric utility, serving about 675,000 Utah customers with reliable, safe, low-cost electricity. While Utah Power already buys renewable energy for its customers, Blue Sky is a way customers can voluntarily help bring even more renewable power into the system, and to help drive wind farm development. In Utah, Blue Sky Community Challenges have been issued in Salt Lake City, Park City, Moab and Sundance. Blue Sky has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy as a leading green utility program in terms of customer participation and renewable energy sales. In Utah, nearly 14,000 residential and business customers participate. Nearly 36,000 customers buy Blue Sky in the western United States .