MERRILLVILLE, Ind. — Riders on the South Shore Line trains are already preventing harmful greenhouse gas emissions by foregoing their cars, but thanks to a new partnership with Northern Indiana Public Service Company, their commute will now be entirely green.

 

Beginning today, all of the South Shore Line’s services and 41 daily trains running through northern Indiana will be powered exclusively by renewable energy, primarily from win d and solar energy resources.

“Our trains, which are already considered to be one of the cleanest modes of transportation, just got a little cleaner,” said John Parsons, Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District planning and marketing director. “When NIPSCO approached us about the opportunity, we felt it was a great fit and we are hopeful that it will help provide an added incentive to attract new riders to the South Shore Line.”

To ensure the electricity used by the South Shore Line to power its train system can be attributed to renewable energy, NIPSCO has purchased Renewable Energy Certificates for the train system. RECs are the environmental attributes that are derived when electricity is generated from renewable and/or environmentally friendly sources.

“This partnership is another example of our ongoing efforts to help promote environmental sustainability and stewardship,” said Kathleen O’Leary, NIPSCO president. “We”re doing our part to support the local environment, and we want to help empower our customers to do the same.”

NIPSCO will purchase the RECs for a six-week period from July 16-Aug. 30, 2012.

The partnership also helps raise awareness for NIPSCO’s proposed Green Power Rate program, which is currently being reviewed by Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. The program would allow NIPSCO customers to designate a portion, or all of their monthly electric usage to be attributable to power generated by renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and hydroelectric power.

For a complete list of South Shore Line’s train schedules, visit www.nictd.com.

Or, to learn more about what you can do to help support the environment, and to see what NIPSCO is doing, visit NIPSCO.com/environment.

Source: NIPSCO