Yesterday, Intel announced that it has become the largest purchaser of green energy in the US. This means that they'll buy 1.3 kilowatt hours of renewable energy certificates, which show that their power will come from solar, wind, hydroelectric, and biomass sources.In terms of environmental impact, this move is equivalent to taking 185,000 passenger cars off the road each year. (Which, you know, Intel couldn't actually *do*, short of activating some nefarious sci-fi car-destruct device...come to think of it, that's not such a bad idea...time to put together my own technology company!)
This announcement means that Intel will now be at the top of the EPA's Green Power Partners list, which tells consumers which 25 companies are the largest consumers of green energy (Pepsico and the US Air Force are numbers 2 and 3, which is strange).
Although this move, and the list, are great things, I'm worried that news like this obscures the need for governmental energy regulation, leading everyone to believe that companies will just naturally choose to do the right thing. Which, I would argue, is not always the case (um, Enron?)
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