Power Marketing for Environmental Benefits in the Great Lakes Region — Creating EcoLakes Power Products and Reinvestment Fund
Year Awarded: 1998
Awarded: $425,000
Team Leader: Environmental Resources Trust, Inc.
This team established trademark rights for “EcoPower” (electric power bundled with mitigation activities creating “net environmental benefit”) and assessed power-marketing opportunities in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. The team also signed an umbrella agreement with ComEd to explore a prospective joint power-marketing program to produce and market power from alternative energy sources (especially wind power and landfill gas).
Project participants could not come to a contractual agreement, however, ultimately changing the mitigation and business plan components of the project. The team did reach an agreement with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to develop and evaluate mitigation opportunities.
This project was a unique experiment in reducing negative impacts of energy usage by providing opportunities for energy providers to deliver less environmentally harmful energy to customers.