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Rascals 'Go Green' with Pure Power, Become First In Minor League Baseball
First and key step to the ball club's overall sustainability program
O'Fallon, MO. -- AmerenUE announced today that the River City Rascals Professional Baseball Club has agreed to purchase renewable energy credits (RECs) through the company's Pure Power program, making them the first Minor League baseball team to ‘Go Green'. The Rascal's commitment to this voluntary program will help prevent approximately 177,024 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2), a leading greenhouse gas, from entering the atmosphere each year. This is equal to the CO2 reduction provided by over 18 acres of forest storing carbon for one year or taking almost 18 cars off the road for a year. Pure Power is AmerenUE's voluntary renewable energy program. It gives residential customers the option to add an extra 1.5 cents/kilowatt hour to their monthly bills, offsetting 100 percent of their energy usage with clean, renewable energy. Commercial and industrial customers, like the River City Rascals, participate by buying "blocks" of Pure Power, paying $15 a month for each 1,000 kilowatt hours used. Pure Power funds are then used to purchase renewable energy certificate from qualified wind farms. The Rascal's purchase of 8 blocks of Pure Power makes it a Pure Power Leader-a designation reserved for companies, governments or other large users of electricity who agree offset at least 20 percent of their energy usage through Pure Power purchases. "Enrolling in Pure Power is a first and key step to the ball club's overall sustainability program which also includes recycling, making sure we turn out field and office lights out earlier after each game, and just doing the little things to help our environment," said Rascals team President Steve Malliet. "We are thrilled to support the development of renewable energy in the region and also to be the first Minor League ball club to become an EPA Green Power Partner. We hope to set the example for sustainability for other clubs across the Country." For more information about the Pure Power program, go to www.ameren.com/purepower. AmerenUE's Pure Power program is Green-e Energy Certified by the not-for-profit Center for Resource Solution. Green-e is the leading renewable energy certification and verification program in the U.S. AmerenUE is a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Ameren Corporation. The Ameren companies serve 2.4 million electric customers and nearly one million natural gas customers in a 64,000-square-mile area of Missouri and Illinois. The River City Rascals are members of the Independent Frontier League and play in O'Fallon, Missouri at T.R. Hughes Ballpark. The Rascals begin their home regular season on May 24 against the Gateway Grizzlies. The box office can be reached by calling (636) 240-BATS.
Cindy Bambini: 314.480.3554, cbambini@3degreesinc.com