Reliant Energy Partners with Environmental Agencies to Restore 1,170 Acres of Columbia Bottomlands

Reliant Energy announced today that it has entered into an innovative agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to preserve and restore 1,170 acres in the Columbia Bottomlands forest in Brazoria County. Reliant Energy is providing approximately $300,000 to assist the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in its effort to preserve and protect the Columbia Bottomlands. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is matching Reliant’s funding, bringing the total investment to almost $600,000. These funds will be used to acquire additional land that will be reforested, decreasing the impact of carbon emissions on the environment. As the native hardwood trees on this land mature, they will sequester, or hold, more than 154,400 tons of carbon, helping to reduce greenhouse gases. "Reliant Energy is committed to environmental stewardship,” said Mark Jacobs, Reliant Energy, president and chief executive officer. "This project provides a great opportunity for us to demonstrate that commitment. Through this innovative public-private partnership we are able to help preserve a piece of this vital habitat and reduce greenhouse gases.” In addition to this benefit and the restoration of critical wildlife habitat and biodiversity, the conversion of land cleared decades ago to bottomland forest will improve water quality, enhance flood control and provide recreation and wildlife habitat. "This project will have a very positive impact locally in Brazoria County, not only in conservation, but in the quality of life for the people here,” said State Rep. Dennis Bonnen, chair of the Environmental Regulations Committee. "There will be many recreation and ecotourism benefits.” The Columbia Bottomlands stretches across the coastal plain between the Brazos, San Bernard and Colorado rivers. The area is vital to migrating neo-tropical birds, as well as native wildlife and plant species. The land, which was formerly used for agriculture, is being restored through a combination of natural re-forestation and selected tree plantings. The area is also home to the San Bernard Oak, the largest live oak in Texas, and includes some of the largest remaining tracts of old-growth bottomland forest in the southern U.S. It extends through four counties, Brazoria, Matagorda, Fort Bend and Wharton. In the 1800s, it was a forest of more than 1,000 square miles. Today less than 25 percent remains in forests. One unique element of this project is the carbon credits associated with this property. Reliant’s agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allows the company to purchase carbon credits equal to the amount of carbon that is removed by the trees over time. "We hope that other businesses and organizations will follow Reliant’s lead and see this as an important model. While conserving and restoring forests in the Columbia Bottomlands is important for wildlife and people directly, it also helps decrease carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by permanently storing carbon in the standing trees, roots and soil of the forest,” says Mike Lange, wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "It is critical to protect the land in perpetuity in order to allow forests to be restored and carbon to be permanently removed from the atmosphere. It is easy to plant a tree, but for carbon sequestration to work, the land that tree is planted on must be protected permanently.” In recent years, Reliant Energy’s environmental staff has worked with more than 200 organizations to restore and preserve habitat in Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and California. While Reliant is a partner or owner in eight other re-forestation projects in the southern U.S., the Columbia Bottomlands project represents the first that will primarily incorporate natural forest re-growth as opposed to mass planting of native bottomland hardwoods. This project accentuates the importance of conservation as a key element in carbon sequestration. Reliant also actively supports energy conservation with programs including Smart Energy, providing pointers about saving energy at www.reliant.com/saveenergy and environmental education through facilities such as the Education Center being developed at Hudson Woods in the Columbia Bottomlands. Reliant Energy, Inc. (NYSE:RRI), based in Houston, Texas, provides electricity and energy services to retail and wholesale customers in the United States. In Texas, the company provides service to more than 1.8 million retail electricity customers, including residential and small business customers and commercial, industrial, governmental and institutional customers. Reliant also serves commercial, industrial, governmental and institutional customers in the PJM (Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland) market. The company is one of the largest independent power producers in the nation with approximately 16,000 megawatts of power generation capacity across the United States. These strategically located generating assets utilize natural gas, fuel oil and coal. For more information, visit www.reliant.com.