“uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç

As America's energy crisis continues, there is good news for renewables in a new report on green power purchases and sales by the Centre for Resource Solutions (CRS) of San Francisco. Large commercial customers accounted for 38% of the demand for green-e certified products last year, up from 21% in 1998, says the report. Almost 28,000 non-residential customers switched last year to green electricity, which must meet strict standards set by CRS. The new buyers include the Los Angeles offices of Toyota, Fetzer Vineyards, the US Postal Service and the Environmental Protection Agency in Richmond, California. Green marketers also delivered more green energy than they promised, says CRS, which monitors the 29 green electricity products on sale in the US. Most customers who switched to green energy last year chose 100% renewable options. Indeed, in both California and Pennsylvania, the two main deregulated markets in the US, more than half of residential and non-residential customers chose all-renewables electricity. In California, 95% of the homes that switched last year chose 100% renewable products. The report, issued on September 21, comes as energy has lurched to the fore in the US presidential race because of spiralling oil and gas prices. After a summer of electricity shortages and rising prices at the petrol pump, Americans face more high energy costs this winter. Natural gas may end up costing 27% more this winter than it did last winter. In comparison wind's price continues to drop.