Entergy Louisiana and Louisiana Governor Blanco team up for Change a Light Campaign

Louisiana Governor and Entergy Louisiana VP install energy-efficient bulbs in Governor's Mansion.

Oct 24, 2007 -- BATON ROUGE - Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and Entergy Louisiana vice president for customer service and commercial and industrial accounts Steven Scheurich joined up to replace ordinary light bulbs in the Governor's Mansion with energy efficient light bulbs today as part of the Change a Light, Change the World campaign.

"Changing a single light bulb may hardly seem like a significant environmentally conscious action, but the results can be quite impressive if we all do our part," Governor Blanco said. "By swapping bulbs at the Governor's Mansion, the people's house, we hope to show Louisiana citizens how they truly can help change the world by developing their own plan for conserving resources and protecting the environment. It all starts at home."

The Change a Light initiative supports a nationwide effort by the federal Energy Star program aimed at raising environmental awareness via the promotion of energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs. The program parallels both Gov. Blanco's work to implement her environmental conservation agenda at the Governor's Mansion and Entergy's ongoing efforts to help customers manage energy costs more effectively.

"High energy costs and harmful environmental practices affect all of us," said Scheurich. "Most people don't realize that the average home pollutes more than the average car. That is why Entergy is working hard to generate power more efficiently and to help customers learn how to better manage energy use."

The benefits of a collective effort are convincing. For example, changing 100,000 bulbs throughout Louisiana can save up to 46 million kWh of electricity over the life of the bulbs - enough to light 21,000 homes for one year. At the same time, it can reduce carbon dioxide emissions comparable to removing 2,571 cars from the roadways and create the same effect as planting 3,656 acres of trees.

In addition, using energy-efficient light bulbs is an excellent way for Louisianans to manage energy costs more effectively and save money. Every light changed to an Energy Star qualified bulb uses a third of the energy of a standard incandescent light, lasts up to 10 times longer, and saves an average of $30 or more in energy costs over its lifetime.

The national Change a Light campaign educates customers on the benefits of energy-efficient lighting and points to an easy-to-use Web site - www.entergy.com/Ensight - where customers can make the Change a Light pledge.

Promotion of the national Change a Light campaign furthers Entergy's environmental commitment. The company has already established itself as an environmental champion by being the nation's first utility to voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its generating plants. The company recently renewed this commitment, aiming for further reductions over the next five years.

In April, the Governor first brought her environmental conservation agenda home by launching a recycling initiative at the Governor's Mansion, working with the Recycling Foundation of Baton Rouge to collect white paper, newspaper, cardboard, plastics, aluminum and glass items collected from the thousand of visitors and hundreds of events hosted at the executive residence every year.

Source: Louisiana Governor

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