CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State University has been named the Pacific-10 Conference champion in the EPA Green Power Partnership's 2010-11 College and University Green Power Challenge.

OSU purchased more renewable energy than any other school in the Pac-10 (now the Pac-12), with 51,595,400 kilowatt hours of green power purchased and used. OSU has been the Pac-10 champion every year since the 2007-08 school year.

"We're glad to see the competition heating up as more and more colleges and universities join the Green Power Challenge," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "This year's schools used more than 1.5 billion kilowatt hours of green power, cutting harmful emissions from our air, protecting health and driving demand in the clean energy market."

Two other Oregon schools made the EPA's list, including Southern Oregon University, which used 33,300,047 kWh, and Lewis and Clark College, which used 12,375,821 kWh.

This year's challenge participation increased to 69 competing institutions, representing 31 different conferences nationwide. The challenge's total annual green power usage of more than 1.5 billion kWh has the equivalent environmental impact of avoiding the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the annual electricity use of more than 132,000 homes.

OSU was also just named in the Princeton Review's annual Green Guide to Colleges.

For more information on OSU's focus on sustainability, see www.poweredbyorange.com and http://oregonstate.edu/sustainability/

More information on the winners of EPA's College and University Green Power Challenge can be found at http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/initiatives/cu_challenge.htm

Source: 

Brandon Trelstad, 541-737-3307

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