Ski Industry Goes Green to Fight Warming

[The Straight Story]

Ski Industry Goes Green to Fight Warming


STATELINE, Nev. (AP) -- Mammoth Mountain urges its visitors to park their cars and take advantage of an extensive bus network. The Vail resorts, including nearby Heavenly at Lake Tahoe, run their lifts with wind power. In Colorado, the Sunshine Express high-speed quad at Steamboat operates on sunlight.

The ski industry is going green to help offset the pollution that feeds global warming - a phenomenon that challenges the resorts' very existence with the threat of later snowfalls and earlier snow melts.

Fifty-five resorts in 14 states are buying renewable energy to offset part or all of their power needs, according to the National Ski Areas Association. Of these, 26 are operating 100 percent on green energy.

"We as a company and us as an industry are really kind of leading the way amongst corporate America in doing the right things for the environment," Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz said.

Vail Resorts took the environmental lead in August with the purchase of nearly 152,000 megawatt hours of wind energy, making it the second largest corporate user in the United States, behind Whole Foods Market Inc. Wind powers every lift and light bulb (low energy) at Vail's five resorts - Vail, Beaver Creek, Arrowhead and Keystone in Colorado and Heavenly in the Sierra on the California-Nevada line.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SKIING_GREEN?SITE=ARFOS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[BlooInBloo]

1. Drop -> Trickle -> Flood. Business will catch on to the fact....

... that their interests are NOT contrary to environmental interests. Quite the opposite, in fact.