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You are in: Home > , > Vail Resorts Dumps Green Power Purchasing Program

Vail Resorts Dumps Green Power Purchasing Program

3 by Timothy Hurst on October 2, 2009
Vail Resorts recently announced they would cancel their green power purchasing program. (TheTruthAbout...)

Vail Resorts recently announced they would cancel their green power purchasing program. (TheTruthAbout...)

Vail Resorts (NYSE: MTN), one of the nation's largest purchasers of renewable energy, announced on Monday they will not renew their three year contract to purchase wind power credits, preferring to invest money in a Colorado forest restoration project.

Since 2006, the Colorado-based ski resort and hotel company purchased wind energy credits from Boulder-based Renewable Choice Energy for 100% of its electricity needs, a little over 151,000 megawatt-hours annually.

Company officials said its announcement was “concurrent with its announcement of its leadership role in the Hayman Restoration Partnership,” a program also announced Monday to help restore forest lands burned in the biggest fire in Colorado history, the 2002 Hayman fire southwest of Denver.

“As the largest tourism company in Colorado, Vail Resorts has a unique opportunity and obligation to protect forest health not only for year-round recreational opportunities but also for the environmental and economic vitality of our communities, our state and our country,” said Rob Katz, chairman and chief executive officer for Vail Resorts.

“As a company, we remain committed to addressing climate change and are focused on energy conservation across our company. However, going forward, we intend to channel our efforts on more comprehensive projects, which help protect the climate and also offer habitat and watershed benefits to local communities, such as the Hayman Restoration Project,” Katz said.

Image via TheTruthAbout...

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About the Author:

Timothy Hurst is the editor at Ecopolitology and Earth & Industry as well as the executive editor of the LiveOAK Media Network. He writes mostly about energy and environmental politics, clean tech, infrastructure and green business. When not reading, writing, or talking about environmental politics to anyone who will listen, Tim likes to ski, hike with his aging lab and get dirty in his Colorado veggie garden. Find .

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  • http://www.biofriendly.com/blog biofriendlyblog

    Am I missing something…they are going to completely stop using renewable energy? That just doesn’t make sense…if they were using wind energy for 100% of their electricity needs, why would they opt to stop that in order help restore burned forest areas?

    Aren’t they saving money by using renewable energy? I would think they would want to continue using renewable energy AND help restore the forest.

  • http://ecopolitology.org Timothy B. Hurst

    Tara, what Vail was doing was buying “renewable energy credits” also known as Green Tags or RECs in lieu of actual renewable energy purchases. I totally agree with you that they shouldn’t choose an either/or strategy, but at the same time, I understand the company’s reluctance continue purchasing the RECs as these have been shown, in some instances, to not be the most efficient way of getting money into the hands of renewable energy developers.

  • http://www.biofriendly.com/blog biofriendlyblog

    Thanks Tim! Well, in that case they should restore the forests and start USING renewable energy rather than buying credits for it. :)