Southwest units cited for green energy usage

Southwest Airlines Co.’s Houston and Dallas operations have been recognized for their green power by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Both of the locations together purchased nearly 16 kilowatt-hours of green power as of July 7 — enough to meet 30 percent of the facilities’ purchased electricity use.

In addition, Dallas-based Southwest (NYSE: LUV) buys renewable energy certificates for the Houston and Dallas operations from Houston-based Reliant Energy to cover the rest of their energy use.

Southwest received the award as a result of its participation in the government agency’s Fortune 500 Green Power Challenge, a program which encourages the country’s largest corporations to collectively exceed 10 billion kilowatt-hours green power purchasing by year-end 2009.

The City of Houston continues to lead in the local government category, using 438 million kWh of wind energy as of July 7, or 34 percent of its total energy use via Reliant Energy.

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