In partnership with Portland General Electric and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort will purchase enough clean, renewable wind energy to run a major chairlift at Meadows and the only chairlift at Cooper Spur Mountain Resort.

According to a press release, by purchasing 334 of PGE’s Clean Wind Green Tags supplied by the BEF, Meadows will support generation of 334,000 kilowatt-hours of wind energy. That’s enough green power to run its Shooting Star Express chairlift this season.

That equals 6.7 percent of the company’s average annual power consumption, and will prevent production of 234 tons of carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas.

A separate Green Tag purchase will support 33,000 kilowatt-hours of green power, enough to power the Homestead lift at Cooper Spur. That purchase will prevent about 23 tons of carbon dioxide from conventional power generation.

According to the Renewable Northwest Project, a non-profit renewable energy advocacy organization, the purchase makes Mt. Hood Meadows the leading ski industry buyer of green power in the Pacific Northwest.

“By supporting renewable energy, we join other ski areas around the country in showing the clear path to a sustainable energy future,” said Dave Riley, vice president and general manager at Meadows.

According to the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Meadows’ support for renewable energy makes it the third-largest direct purchaser of Green Tags among North American ski areas. Utah’s Deer Valley (755 Green Tags) and Park City (488 Green Tags) lead the ski industry.

“We’re proud to call Mt. Hood Meadows our partner in supporting a better energy future for the region,” said Angus Duncan, president of BEF.

Diane Zipper, director of green power programs at RNP, said Mt. Hood Meadows is purchasing enough green power for about 357 average Oregon/NW homes. She said the purchase has the same environmental benefit over the course of one year as not driving the average car 549,900 miles, or planting more than 101 acres of trees.

Green Tags, also known as renewable energy certificates, represent the environmental benefit of renewable power facilities such as wind farms, photovoltaic solar arrays and geothermal generating stations. Each tag purchased by Meadows supports generation of 1,000 kilowatt-hours of green wind power, and represents prevention of 1,400 pounds of carbon dioxide.

The renewable power purchases are just the latest in a series of efforts by the resort to engage its customers in support of renewable energy.

For the 2004 ski season, season pass purchasers have been encouraged to buy a $20 Green Tag through the ski area’s web site, as a way for them to indirectly offset the impact of greenhouse gases from car travel to and from the mountain. So far, they’ve purchased enough Green Tags to prevent 160 tons of greenhouse gases.

During the Spring of 2003, Meadows and BEF created the “mini-Green Tag” a one-tenth fractional share of a Green Tag. On Sustainable Slopes Outreach Day (Feb. 22), the resort began offering the $2 “mini-Green Tags” to guests — as a way for them to offset the impact of one car trip from the Portland metro area to the mountain. Guests last spring purchased enough mini-tags to prevent 17 tons of greenhouse gas.

During the 2002-03 ski season, Meadows bought enough Green Tags to power its Easy Rider chairlift. That purchase equaled about 1 percent of total resort electric consumption, and prevented about 37 tons of carbon dioxide.

An original signatory to the National Ski Areas Association’s Sustainable Slopes Environmental Charter, Meadows joined 33 ski areas from around the nation this fall to support S. 139, also known as the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act. The bill, which failed to receive Congressional support, would have limited U.S. greenhouse gas production by 2010 to levels produced in 2000.

“The energy future will be powered by smart, clean, renewable power, not the fossil-fueled power plants of yesterday,” said KC Golden, policy director for Climate Solutions in Seattle, Wash. “And Mt. Hood Meadows is showing that the clean energy of the future is available and practical today.”