Vail Hails Gales

Vail Resorts to be second-biggest corporate wind-power buyer in U.S.

Colorado-based ski-resort company (and one-time eco-vandal target) Vail Resorts announced this week that it will buy enough wind power to offset all of the electricity it uses at its five ski areas, as well as in its corporate offices and stores. The company's promise to purchase about 152,000 megawatt-hours of wind-power credits a year makes it the second-largest corporate buyer of wind power in the U.S., behind 458,000-MWh-a-year natural grocer Whole Foods, which went wind-powered earlier this year, and just ahead of 150,000-MWh-a-year Starbucks, now pushed to No. 3. To encourage average citizens to make the conversion too, Vail is offering a free or discounted lift ticket to electricity consumers who offset their own power use for one year through Renewable Choice Energy, via the Vail website. Attention poor ski bums: Offsets start at $5 a month; lift tickets start much, much higher.