Calpine Honored With Prestigious Environmental Award

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Calpine Honored With Prestigious Environmental Award

The University of Colorado's Tim Wirth Chair on Environmental and Community Development Policy recognized Calpine for its leadership in producing electricity in an environmentally responsible manner.

SAN JOSE, COLORADO, Mar. 18 -/E-Wire/-- Calpine Corporation [NYSE: CPN], one of North America's leading power companies, has won a major award from the University of Colorado for its leadership in producing electricity in an environmentally responsible manner.

The University's Tim Wirth Chair on Environmental and Community Development Policy selected Calpine for the award for sustainable business. Calpine received the honor at the organization's annual luncheon March 18. Calpine Vice Chairman and Executive Vice President Ann B. Curtis accepted the award.

"We are honored to receive this award," Curtis said. "One of Calpine's major goals is to produce electricity as fuel-efficiently and with as little environmental impact as possible. This award shows that we're succeeding, and we will continue to strive to do even better."

Calpine operates two power plants in Colorado. The Rocky Mountain Energy Center (Hudson) provides as many as 621 megawatts of electricity â enough to supply more than 600,000 households. Its 265-megawatt Blue Spruce Energy Center (Aurora) is a "peaker" plant that is designed to generate electricity to help meet peak power demand periods.

Both projects are setting new environmental standards for power generation in Colorado while providing a reliable and long-term energy solution. For example, compared to the average U.S. gas-fired power plant, Calpine's Rocky Mountain Energy Center uses up to 40 percent less fuel and is achieving dramatic emissions reductions by using combined-cycle combustion turbine design and advanced emissions control systems.

To help meet the company's fuels requirements and provide a much needed fuel resource for the natural gas-fired generation industry, Calpine's natural gas operations in Colorado produce approximately 12 million cubic feet per day and boast 100 billion cubic feet equivalent in proven and probable reserves.

The University of Colorado established the Tim Wirth Chair in Environmental and Community Development Policy in 1993. The Chair honors the environmental and sustainable development achievements of Wirth, a former U.S. senator and under-secretary of state who is now president of the United Nations Foundation.

The mission of the Wirth Chair is to foster effective sustainable-development strategies. The Chair is committed to helping governments, businesses, non-profit groups and community organizations form sustainable-development partnerships that carefully balance economic, community development, environmental and expanded social welfare objectives and strategies. The Wirth Chair works to develop meaningful environmental protection policies and programs, cost-effective energy-management and energy efficiency programs, sound greenhouse gas emission-reduction strategies, and fair and effective growth-management strategies.

Calpine Corporation, celebrating its 20th year in power in 2004, is a leading North American power company dedicated to providing electric power to wholesale and industrial customers from clean, efficient, natural gas-fired and geothermal power facilities. The company generates power at plants it owns or leases in 21 states in the United States, three provinces in Canada and in the United Kingdom, and construction will begin this year on the company's first project in Mexico. Calpine is also the world's largest producer of renewable geothermal energy, and owns or has access to approximately one trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas reserves in the United States and Canada. The company is listed on the S&P; 500, and was named FORTUNE's 2004 America's Most Admired Energy Company. Calpine was founded in 1984 and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CPN. For more information, visit www.calpine.com.

Katherine Potter, ext.1168

Rick Barraza, ext.1125

http://www.calpine.com

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