'Green Highway' Partners Promoting Sustainable Living Include
Green Mountain Energy Company, Honda's Hybrid Cars, National Biodiesel Board
and Others Working Towards a Cleaner Planet
AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Nine-time Grammy winner and longtime
environmental activist Bonnie Raitt is definitely giving them something to
talk about this summer: she has just launched her first ever traveling
environmental midway, Green Highway, sharing the message of clean energy and
sustainable living along her summer concert tour with Lyle Lovett. This
eco-village and accompanying website feature exhibits of products and
organizations working in harmony with the environment, bringing us
alternatives which are as good for the economy and jobs as they are for the
quality of our lives in years to come.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000804/GMELOGO )
Green Mountain Energy Company, the nation's largest retail provider of
cleaner energy, will be supporting the generation of enough wind power for the
38-city tour to make the tour's electricity usage effectively neutral in its
impact on global warming. The company will be supporting the generation of
enough new wind power to cover the electricity usage for the tour, estimated
to be approximately 500-megawatt hours based on other performances at the
venues. Based on this estimate of electricity usage for the tour, it will
offset the production of 327 tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2), which avoids as
much C02 as not driving a car 726,600 miles.
"It's no accident that we're in danger of losing both our ecological and
our economic well-being at the same time," explains Raitt, who created the
Green Highway concept along with colleagues Kathy Kane and Harvey Wasserman.
"I feel too many government and corporate policies are inseparably
shortsighted and we've created Green Highway to demonstrate that working in
harmony with nature can offer real solutions for preserving both our planet
and our prosperity."
Two important components of the Green Highway midway are Honda's Hybrid
vehicles -- Insight and Civic Hybrid cars, which employ a small gasoline
engine coupled with a high output electric motor to reduce emissions and
provide excellent fuel efficiency. Honda's two cars will be at every concert
in conjunction with the Green Highway exhibits. In addition, some of the
Green Highway tour vehicles will run on B20, a biodiesel fuel that is made
from fat or vegetable oil (usually soy) and offers a cleaner-burning
alternative to standard diesel. "I think it's wonderful that Bonnie Raitt is
leading by example using a farm-grown fuel that decreases emissions and
dependence on foreign oil," said Bob Metz, president of the National Biodiesel
Board and a South Dakota soybean farmer. "Biodiesel is beginning to enjoy
commercial success as one of the fastest growing alternative fuels available."
"The presence of these companies and their products means they endorse our
basic principle of ecological harmony, and our belief in the timeless Quaker
philosophy -- that you can do good at the same time you are doing well," Raitt
says of the tour's sponsors, which in addition to Green Mountain Energy
Company, Honda Hybrid Cars and the National Biodiesel Board include Marvin
Windows and Doors, ShoreBank Pacific's Eco-Deposits, BP Solar, American Wind
Energy Association, Guayaki Yerba Mate Tea, Aloha Bay 'Petroleum-free' Candle
Company, and American Solar Energy Society. "Their presence does not imply a
blanket endorsement by us, simply that they adhere to the core principle of
the Green Highway, that our economic life must run in harmony with the
sanctity of the natural environment."
Bonnie Raitt is as well known for her commitment to social activism as she
is for her music. She has been involved with the environmental movement since
the mid-1970's and was a founding member of MUSE (Musicians United for Safe
Energy), which produced the historic 1979 NO NUKES concerts at Madison Square
Garden, which resulted in a platinum selling triple album, and the
feature-length movie directed by Academy Award-winner Barbara Kopple. Raitt
has been especially active in the fight to preserve ancient forests,
performing numerous benefit concerts, lobbying in Washington and twice
committing civil disobedience in support of ecologically sound government and
corporate policies.
With three decades of recording and touring under her belt, multi-Platinum
selling Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Bonnie Raitt is clearly in her
prime. Silver Lining, her 16th and most recent album, was produced by Raitt,
Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake. It has been hailed by critics as one of the
best albums of her career and has been certified Gold by the R.I.A.A. for
sales of more than 500,000 copies. Her recent television appearances have
included "Late Show with David Letterman," "The Today Show," "The Tonight Show
with Jay Leno," "Oprah," the "Early Show," and one of the final episodes of
"The Rosie O'Donnell Show."
This summer marks the third time Raitt and Lyle Lovett have toured
together. Raitt took Lovett on his first national tour in 1986, shortly after
the release of his debut album.
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SOURCE Green Mountain Energy Company
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