Naperville, IL - This Earth Day, the City of Naperville and renewable energy marketing partner Community Energy, Inc. (CEI) are proud to announce the success of the newly launched City of Naperville Renewable Energy Option. Since January, more than 1% of the city's residential electric customers - over 550 Naperville households - have enrolled in the program, which makes it one of the fastest growing renewable energy programs in the country.

The Naperville Renewable Energy Option provides all residential and commercial utility customers within Naperville the opportunity to purchase emission-free, renewable sources of electricity from natural sources such as the wind, sun, and water. The renewable energy supplying the Naperville Renewable Energy Option program is primarily comprised of wind energy from Illinois-based wind farms with small amounts of hydroelectric and solar power also generated entirely within the State of Illinois.

Customers can participate at various levels of support, with rates starting as low as $5.00 per month added to a customer's utility bill. City residents and businesses can choose the participation level that best fits their energy usage and their budget.

City officials and CEI, joined by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and residential and commercial Renewable Energy Options customers will gather today, in honor of Earth Day, to celebrate renewable energy in Illinois, its availability in the City of Naperville, and its benefits for the environment and the economy. The environmental benefits of current Naperville households participating in the program each year are equivalent to planting more than 150,000 trees.

Director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Renee Cipriano, stated: "Naperville's leadership in promoting the use of renewable energy at the local level will help achieve Governor Blagojevich's renewable goals for Illinois, which in turn will improve the environment, help us achieve energy independence, and increase economic development."

"Municipally-owned utilities, like ours in Naperville, have the responsibility to take the lead in doing the right thing to help our environment," said Director of Public Utilities Allan Poole. "By supporting renewable energy in Illinois, we are displacing energy produced with fossil fuels and substituting it with energy generated from natural resources. I encourage all Naperville residents and businesses to take this important step towards a more sustainable energy future by signing up for the Naperville Renewable Energy Option today."

CEI and the City of Naperville have set an ambitious goal of 10% participation within two years of the program's January 2005 launch. "The early response is very encouraging that Naperville will hit its goal," said Amy McGinty, Utility Programs Manager for CEI. A ten-percent enrollment rate would place the Naperville Renewable Energy Option program in the lead among all programs in the country, according to rankings released each year by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado.

Lori Bird, Senior Analyst at NREL said: "Customer participation in utility green power programs continues to grow across the country. Municipal utilities, like the City of Naperville, are playing an important role in this trend."

All City of Naperville utility customers will be receiving a postage-paid enrollment form in their April utility bill, which is an easy way to sign up for the program. Residents can also help the city reach its participation goal by signing up for the Renewable Energy Option on the city's Web site at www.naperville.il.us or by calling 1-866-946-3123.

Community Energy, Inc. (CEI) is a leading national retail marketer of wind-generated power. CEI partners with utilities, competitive electric suppliers, and municipalities to offer a renewable energy choice directly to retail electric customers. CEI was founded in 1999 with the mission to ignite the market and develop the supply of wind and other fuel-free renewable energy sources. CEI cites its retail customers, which include many of the largest purchasers of wind energy in the country, as the reason for its success in bringing wind energy to market in new regions of the country. CEI has wind projects under development in Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New England, and other states east of the Mississippi River.