Oregon Public Broadcasting

The chip maker, Intel, has been ranked as the nation's top purchaser of green power. Kristian Foden-Vencil reports.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found that Intel uses about one billion kilowatts of green power annually -- that's the equivalent of getting rid of the carbon dioxide emissions of nearly 130,000 American homes.

Blaine Collison of the EPA says they've been compiling a green power list since 2001 -- in an effort to encourage businesses to out-green each other.

Blaine Collison: "You can find lots of companies that are happy to say what great environmental citizens they are. It's very hard sometimes to find comparative apples to apples data. So we think that we're accomplishing something there."

Intel gets about 46 percent of its power from green sources like wind, and from buying renewable energy certificates.

Pepsico, which uses 100 percent renewable power, came in second -- basically because it uses much less power than Intel.