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Top 10 clean-powered U.S. companies

The EPA's ranking of clean power users is out. Intel continues to dominate, while new companies join the list.
Written by Kirsten Korosec, Contributor
Intel Corp. continues to lead U.S. companies in the EPA's green power ranking, consuming twice as much energy from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass and low-impact small hydroelectric sources as the next biggest user.

Intel, which uses "green power" to cover 100 percent of its electricity load, has sat at the EPA Top 100 Green Power Rankings list for seven years. And it's not likely to change any time soon. Kohl's, in the No. 2 spot, used 1.53 billion kilowatt hours of green power compared with Intel's 3.1 billion kWh. The EPA defines green power as energy from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass and low-impact small hydroelectric sources.

Further down the top 10, the race is closer. And in the past year, there have been a few changes. Kohl's supplanted Microsoft from the No. 2 spot, not by adding more green power sources, but because the tech companies is now using less. Last year, Microsoft used 1.9 billion kWh of green power, which made up 80 percent of its total electricity use. The latest numbers from EPA show Microsoft dropping to 1.3 billion kWh of green power, accounting for only 50 percent of its total electricity use. 

Whole Foods hasn't lost or added any new green power sources and remains in the No. 4 spot. This year, Google made it into the top 10 list, leapfrogging over Apple, Staples and Walmart. Starbucks company-owned stores and Lockheed Martin, two companies in the top 10 last year, just missed the cut off coming in a 11th and 14th, respectively.

Several cities, particularly ones in Texas, are moving up the EPA's larger top 100 list. The city of Houston came in at No. 9, while the city of Austin was ranked 19th and Dallas was 20th.

Here's the top 10 list via the EPA. Check out their site, for the complete top 100 list  
 
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This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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