Green Mountain Energy Company Goes Carbon Neutral; Company Joins EPA's Climate Leaders...

AUSTIN, Texas -- As part of its corporate commitment to sustainable business practices and focus on improving the community in which it does business, Green Mountain Energy Company today announced its participation in the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) "Climate Leaders

Program." Climate Leaders is a voluntary industry-government partnership that encourages companies to develop long-term comprehensive climate change strategies and set greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction goals. Starting in 2005, Green Mountain Energy Company plans to offset a full 100 percent of its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The company's commitment to Climate Leaders is to offset CO2 emissions through 2010.

"Green Mountain Energy Company's voluntary participation in the EPA's Climate Leaders program demonstrates a serious commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives," said Kathleen Hogan, Director of EPA's Climate Protection Partnership Division. "Green Mountain's aggressive greenhouse gas reduction target will help lead the way in improving our global environment."

As part of its mission to change the way power is made, Green Mountain Energy Company feels it is critical to embrace its role as a responsible corporate citizen. Since 1998, Green Mountain Energy Company has calculated CO2 emissions resulting from its daily business activities, including office energy and paper use, employee commuting, and corporate air travel. Through its Corporate Climate Mitigation Program, the company has offset half of each year's emissions.

"It's critical we do our part to have a positive impact in the environment and in the community," said Gillan Taddune, chief environmental officer of Green Mountain Energy Company. "We consistently demonstrate this commitment by instituting a variety of internal programs all of which reduce our carbon footprint. Additionally, EPA reviews our emissions to ensure they are accurately calculated and reported."

Partners in the Climate Leaders program set a corporate-wide GHG reduction goal and inventory their emissions to measure progress. By reporting inventory data to EPA, Partners create a lasting record of their accomplishments. Partners also identify themselves as corporate environmental leaders and strategically position themselves as climate change policy continues to unfold.

Prior to 2005, Green Mountain Energy Company had already implemented a number of sustainable business practices to reduce its impact on the environment, including:

--The purchase of renewable energy certificates to offset a percentage of energy usage for its corporate headquarters each year;

--An employee offset program where employees purchase renewable energy certificates to offset their home energy usage each year; in 2004, GMEC employees were responsible for the avoidance of nearly 1.4 million pounds of CO2 from entering the air;

--A commuter program that rewards employees for finding creative ways to get to work; in 2004, the program helped avoid over 15,000 pounds of CO2.

In addition, Green Mountain Energy Company is a member of EPA's Green Power Partnership and the Texas Clean Air Partners program. The company also reports to DOE's 1605B voluntary greenhouse reporting registry, completes an annual CERES report documenting the company's commitment to continuous environmental improvement by endorsing the CERES Principles (a 10-point code of environmental conduct), and has partnered with American Forests since 1998 to plant more than 50,000 trees in areas throughout the country on behalf of Green Mountain Energy(R) customers.

About Green Mountain Energy Company

Founded in 1997 to change the way power is made, Green Mountain Energy Company (www.greenmountain.com) offers residential, business, institutional and governmental customers the choice to support cleaner electricity generated from sources such as wind, solar, water, geothermal, biomass and natural gas. Due to Green Mountain Energy Company's efforts, almost 600,000 customers nationwide are purchasing electricity that is significantly less polluting than typical system power. The company is based in Austin, Texas.

Green Mountain Energy(R) and the Green Mountain Energy logo are registered service marks of Green Mountain Energy Company. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

NOTE TO EDITORS: In the term "CO2" above, the "2" is subscript. It was changed for transmission purposes only.