November 13, 2001

For information contact:
Mary O’Connell 312 782 2464
Rafael Marques, 312 554 3384
www.chicagoclimateX.com

Chicago, Mexico City Join Carbon Trading Market
Mayor Announces Commitment to Chicago Climate Exchange in Unveiling City Energy Policy

The City of Chicago will become the nation’s first municipality to commit to participate in the development of a carbon emissions trading system, a widely hailed strategy for addressing climate change, Mayor Daley announced today.   At the same time, Mexico City officials also announced their intention to join Chicago in the carbon trading initiative.

The City of Chicago and Mexico City are joining the Chicago Climate Exchange, a voluntary market for trading emissions of greenhouse gases, which scientists say are the chief culprit in global warming and other climate changes.  Mr. Daley will become honorary Chairman of the Exchange, now in its design phase. 

"For years our financial exchanges have been a vital part of the local and national economy," said Mayor Daley. "This is a good example of the kind of innovation that will help us solve our energy and environmental problems."

"Mexico City is pleased to announce its participation in the Chicago Climate Exchange design phase," said Mexico City’s Environment Secretary Claudia Sheinbaum.   "Our participation supports the development of options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are both cost effective and supportive of sustainable development.  We are convinced that the CCX is a key opportunity to help the City of Mexico achieve sizable greenhouse gas emission reductions."

Grupo IMSA of Mexico is also announcing its intent to participate in the design phase of the CCX. It will join 40 other entities that have made a similar commitment, signalling their willingness to help devise a  market-based mechanism for limiting emissions through a voluntary cap. The CCX would enable them to get credit for such voluntary reductions and to buy and sell credits in order to find the most cost-effective way of achieving reductions, with a goal of reducing participants’ greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent below 1999 levels over 5 years.

“We are delighted to welcome the sister cities of Chicago and Mexico City, as well as Grupo IMSA into the CCX. The commitments of major North American cities and corporations to this initiative  indicate that the concept of emissions trading is gaining greater acceptance as a cost-effective way of achieving environmental benefits,” said Dr. Richard Sandor, Chairman of the Chicago Climate Exchange.

Funded through $1.1 million in grants from the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation, the Chicago Climate Exchange draws on the model of sulfur dioxide trading, which has been successful in cutting pollution that causes acid rain.  To address climate change, companies would set voluntary limits on their greenhouse gas emissions, and their either make the reductions themselves or buy credits from others that have “extra” reductions to sell.  The Exchange, now in its design phase, would offer a market for such transactions, and thus help reveal the “price” of cutting carbon emissions.

After years of discussion about the potential for trading carbon emissions, the Chicago Climate Exchangesm will first test the concept on a regional scale, and then promptly expand to cover the rest of the U.S., Mexico and Canada.  The Midwest is a promising location for starting the market, according to Sandor, because of its nearly one-fifth share of the U.S. economy and greenhouse gas emissions, its mix of manufacturing, transport, energy, agriculture and forestry sectors, and its extensive international linkages.

Mr. Daley announced the City’s commitment to CCX in outlining a 13-point energy plan for Chicago. The Mayor spoke  at a meeting of corporate leaders, under the auspices of The CEO Coalition, discussing “The Future of Energy and Clean Air in Mid-America.”  Dr. Sandor was a featured speaker at the event. 

Chairman and CEO of Chicago-based Environmental Financial Products and a research professor at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, Dr. Sandor is known for developing innovative commodity and environmental markets. He was honored by the Chicago Board of Trade and the City of Chicago for his universal recognition as the “father of financial futures.”

With assets of roughly $900 million, the Joyce Foundation is known for its strategic public policy grantmaking intended to enhance the quality of life in the Midwest. The Foundation has been a longtime funder of efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment of the Great Lakes region. Funding for the Chicago Climate Exchange comes under the Joyce Millennium Initiatives. Launched in 2000 to mark the millennium, and ranging between $250,000 and $1 million, the Millennium Initiatives support “intergenerational” activities — intended to reinforce and carry forward landmark achievements of the twentieth century, as well as promote bold, change-oriented initiatives for the century to come.

Entities participating in the design phase of the Chicago Climate Exchangesm

Agriliance:  Agriliance is a partnership of agricultural producer-owners, local cooperatives and regional cooperatives.  Agriliance offers crop nutrients, crop protection products, seeds, information management, and crop technical services to producers and ranchers in all 50 states as well as Canada and Mexico.  It has sales and marketing offices in St. Paul, Minn., and Kansas City, Mo. Agriliance, LLC was formed on February 3, 2000, as an agronomy marketing joint venture between Cenex Harvest States Cooperatives, Farmland Industries, Inc. and Land O'Lakes, Inc.

Alliant Energy: Alliant Energy Corporation is a growing energy-service provider with both domestic and international operations.  Headquartered in Madison, Wis., Alliant Energy provides electric, natural gas, water and steam services to more than two million customers worldwide. Alliant Energy Resources Inc., the home of the company's non-regulated businesses, has operations and investments throughout the United States, as well as Australia, Brazil, China, Mexico and New Zealand.

BP p.l.c. is the holding company of one of the world's largest petroleum and petrochemicals groups.  BP’s main activities are exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas; refining, marketing, supply and transportation; and manufacturing and marketing of petrochemicals. BP has a growing activity in gas and power and in solar power generation. BP has well-established operations in Europe, North and South America, Australasia and Africa.

Calpine: Headquartered in San Jose, CA, Calpine has an energy portfolio comprised of 50 energy centers, with net ownership capacity of 5,900 megawatts.  Located in key power markets throughout the United States, these centers produce enough energy to meet the electrical needs of close to six million households.  Calpine was ranked 25th among FORTUNE magazine's 100 fastest growing companies and it was recently ranked by Business Week as the 3rd best performing stock in the S&P 500.

Carr Futures/Crédit Agricole Indosuez: Carr Futures, a subsidiary of Crédit Agricole Indosuez, is a global institutional brokerage firm headquartered in Chicago.  Carr holds memberships on all major futures and equity markets worldwide, and consistently ranks among the largest futures brokerage firms in the world.

Cinergy Corp.: Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Cinergy Corp. is one of the leading diversified energy companies in the U.S.  Its largest operating companies, The Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company (Ohio), Union Light, Heat & Power (Kentucky), Lawrenceburg Gas (Indiana), and PSI Energy, Inc. (Indiana), serve more than 1.5 million electric customers and 500,000 gas customers located in a 25,000-square-mile service territory encompassing portions of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.  The interconnections of Cinergy's Midwestern transmission assets give it access to 37 percent of the total U.S. energy consumption.

CMS Generation is the 10th-largest U.S.-based company developing and operating independent power projects around the world. CMS Generation owns interests in independent power plants totaling more than 9,742 gross megawatts and more than 4,621 megawatts are under construction. CMS Generation currently operates plants in 10 countries, including the United States, India, Morocco, Argentina, Chile and Thailand. Three of its plants-in North Africa and Australia-are the largest independent power plants on their continents.

Ducks Unlimited - The mission of Ducks Unlimited is to fulfill the annual life cycle needs of North American waterfowl by protecting, enhancing, restoring, and managing important wetlands and associated uplands.  Since its founding in 1937, DU has raised more than $1.6 billion, which has contributed to the conservation of almost 10 million acres of prime wildlife habitat in all 50 states, each of the Canadian provinces and in key areas of Mexico.  Some 900 species of wildlife live and flourish on DU projects, including many threatened or endangered species.  DU is the leading land restoration organization in North America and has much experience partnering with private landowners to deliver projects.  Restoration activities such as reforestation and establishing grasslands serve to sequester carbon.

DuPont: DuPont is a science company, delivering science-based solutions that make a
difference in people's lives in food and nutrition, health care, apparel, home and construction, electronics, and transportation. Founded in 1802, the company operates in 70 countries and has 93,000 employees.

  DTE Energy is a Detroit-based diversified energy company involved in the development and management of energy-related businesses and services nationwide. DTE Energy’s principal operating subsidiaries are Detroit Edison, an electric utility serving 2.1 million customers in Southeastern Michigan, and Michigan Consolidated Gas, serving 1.2 million customers in Michigan.

  Exelon Corporation is one of the nation's largest electric utilities with approximately five million customers and more than $15 billion in annual revenues. The company has one of the industry's largest portfolios of electricity generation capacity, with a nationwide reach and strong positions in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. Exelon distributes electricity to approximately five million customers in Illinois and Pennsylvania and gas to 425,000 customers in the Philadelphia area. The company also has holdings in such competitive businesses as energy, infrastructure services and energy services. Exelon is headquartered in Chicago.

FirstEnergy, headquartered in Akron, Ohio, is a registered public utility holding company whose subsidiaries have annual revenues of more than $12 billion, and electricity sales of approximately 124 billion kilowatt-hours. Its seven electric utility operating companies--Ohio Edison, The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, Toledo Edison, Metropolitan Edison, Pennsylvania Electric, Pennsylvania Power and Jersey Central Power & Light--comprise the nation's fourth largest investor-owned electric system, based on serving 4.3 million customers in a 36,100-square-mile service area that stretches from the Ohio-Indiana border to the New Jersey shore. FirstEnergy subsidiaries and affiliates provide a wide range of energy and energy-related products and services, including the generation and sale of electricity; exploration and production of oil and natural gas; transmission and marketing of natural gas; mechanical and electrical contracting and construction; energy management; and telecommunications.

Ford Motor Company is the world’s second largest automotive company.  Its Automotive operations include: Ford, Mercury and TH!NK brands; wholly owned subsidiaries Volvo, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Land Rover; Mazda (33 percent ownership); and Quality Care and Kwik-Fit.  Ford Financial Services, providing automotive financing and other services, and The Hertz Corporation, providing car rental services, are the other major components of Ford Motor Company.  Ford’s vision is to become the world’s leading consumer company for automotive products and services.  Ford Motor Company cares about preserving the environment for future generations, and is dedicated to providing ingenious environmental solutions that will position them as a leader in the automotive industry of the 21st century and contribute to a sustainable planet.

GROWMARK, Inc.: GROWMARK, headquartered in Bloomington, Illinois, is a federated regional cooperative that provides agriculture-related products and services primarily in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada. FS-brand farm supplies and related services are marketed to farmers in these areas by nearly 100 GROWMARK member cooperatives. Visit the GROWMARK Web site at www.fssystem.com.

Grupo IMSA, a holding company, was founded in 1936 and is today one of Mexico’s leading diversified industrial companies. The Group operates in four core businesses: steel processed products; automotive batteries and related products; aluminum and other related products; and steel and plastic construction products. With manufacturing facilities in Mexico, the United States and throughout Central and South America, Grupo IMSA currently exports to all five continents. In 2000 Grupo IMSA’s sales reached US$2.2 billion, of which close to 45% was generated outside Mexico. Grupo IMSA shares trade on the Mexican Stock Exchange (IMSA) and on the NYSE (IMY).

IGF Insurance Company: IGF Insurance Company is the fifth-largest crop insurance company. IGF serves farmers in 46 states and maintains eight service offices nationwide.  IGF prides itself in developing niche products for farmers' risk management needs. 

Interface, Inc. is a global manufacturer, marketer, installer and  servicer of products for the commercial and institutional interiors market. The Company is the worldwide leader in the modular carpet segment, which includes both carpet tile and two-meter roll goods. The Company's Bentley, Prince Street, and Firth brands are leaders in the high quality, designer-oriented sector of the broadloom segment. The Company provides specialized carpet replacement, installation and maintenance services through its Re:Source Americas service network. The Company's Fabrics Group includes the leading U.S. manufacturer of panel fabrics for use in open plan office furniture systems. The Company's specialty products operations produce raised/access flooring systems,     antimicrobial additives, adhesives and various other specialty chemical compounds and products.           

International Paper:  With over 12 million acres of land managed in the United States alone, International Paper is one of the world’s largest private landowners.  International IP has significant global businesses in paper and paper distribution, packaging and forest products, including building materials.

Iowa Farm Bureau Federation: The Iowa Farm Bureau is a Federation of 100 county Farm Bureaus in Iowa.  The organization was founded in 1918 and is currently comprised of more than 154,000 member families throughout the state.  Numerous legislative, educational and service-to-member programs are provided for the members’ benefit.  The Iowa Farm Bureau’s mission is to help farm families prosper and improve their quality of life.  It is an independent, non-governmental, voluntary organization.  It is local, statewide, national and international in its scope and influence and is nonpartisan, nonsectarian and nonsecret in character.

IT Group, Inc. is a provider of diversified, value-added services in the areas of consulting, engineering and construction, remediation and facilities management. Through the Company's diverse group of highly specialized companies, clients can take advantage of a single, fully integrated delivery system and expertise to meet their global environmental needs. Its broad range of services includes the identification of contaminants in soil, air and water and the subsequent design and execution of remedial solutions.

Manitoba Hydro is a major energy utility headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba serving 403,000 electric customers throughout Manitoba and 248 000 gas customers in various communities throughout southern Manitoba. Virtually all electricity generated by the provincial Crown Corporation is from self-renewing water power. We are the major distributor of natural gas in the province. The Corporation's capital assets-in-service at original cost exceed $8 billion, making it the fourth largest energy utility in Canada.

Mead Corporation a forest products company with $4.4 billion in annual sales, is one of the leading North American producers of coated paper, coated paperboard and consumer and office products, a world leader in multiple packaging and specialty paper, and a producer of high-quality corrugating medium. In management of the company's more than two million acres of forests, Mead is committed to practicing principled forest stewardship and using resources in a responsible and sustainable manner.  Headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, Mead has more than 15,100 employees and offices and operations in 32 countries.

Midwest Generation: Headquartered in Chicago, Midwest Generation, a subsidiary of Edison Mission Energy, owns 13 electricity generating units in Illinois and Pennsylvania. With a total generating capacity of over 11,400 megawatts, Midwest Generation can generate enough electricity to meet the needs of more than 13 million homes. Midwest Generation is exclusively in business to sell wholesale power in competitive electricity markets.  The company is currently undertaking a major program to reduce emissions from its coal-fired plants.

National Council of Farmer Cooperatives:  NCFC’s mission is to protect the public policy environment in which farmer-owned cooperative businesses operate, promote their economic well-being, and provide leadership in cooperative education.  NCFC remains the only organization serving exclusively as the national representative and advocate for America’s farmer-owned cooperative businesses.

Navitas Energy is an independent power producer that develops, owns and operates renewable energy production facilities in the United States. Navitas currently has over 650 MW of clean energy under development, leveraging the environmental benefits of wind energy with the dispatchability of combustion turbines to produce a cleaner blend of affordable electric energy.

NiSource Inc., is a holding company with headquarters in Merrillville, Ind., whose operating companies engage in all phases of the natural gas and electric business from exploration and production to transmission, storage and distribution of natural gas, as well as electric generation, transmission and distribution.  Its operation companies provide service to 3.6 million customers located within the high-demand energy corridor that stretches from the Gulf of Mexico through the Midwest to New England.

Nuon is one of the largest multi-utility companies in the Netherlands, serving more than 2.5 million residential and business customers with electricity and, in many instances, with gas, water and heat as well. The company is in the forefront in the marketing of green energy and renewable energy generation in the Netherlands and is extending its knowledge and experience in the area of renewable energy internationally. Nuon’s activities in the field of renewable energy include wind power, small hydropower, thermal and photovoltaic solar energy, landfill gas, biogas, biomass and ambient heat.

ORMAT: ORMAT is the world leader in distributed reliable remote microturbine power units (also known as Closed Cycle Vapor Turbo Generators).  ORMAT's operations use locally available heat sources, including geothermal energy (steam and hot water), industrial waste heat, solar energy, biomass, and low grade fuels.

Pinnacle West Capital Corp: Based in Phoenix, Ariz., Pinnacle West is the parent company of APS and Pinnacle West Energy. APS is Arizona's largest and longest-serving electric utility, serving more than 857,000 customers, and Pinnacle West Energy is the company's unregulated wholesale generating subsidiary. Among the utilities listed in the S&P 500, Pinnacle West is ranked in the top 10 percent for environmental performance by an international investment advisory firm. The Company also is ranked in the top 10 percent by Fortune magazine for total shareholder return over the last five years.

PG&E National Energy Group, headquartered in Bethesda, Md., develops, owns and operates electric generating and gas pipeline facilities and provides energy trading, marketing and risk-management services in North America.  The National Energy Group operates power production facilities with a capacity of about 7,000 megawatts, with another 10,000 megawatts under development, and more than 1,300 miles of natural gas transmission pipeline with a capacity of 2.7 billion cubic feet per day.  (PG&E National Energy Group is not the same company as Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the California utility, and is not regulated by the California Public Utilities Comission.Customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Company do not have to buy products or services from PG&E National Energy Group in order to continue to receive quality regulated services from Pacific Gas and Electric Company.)

SC Johnson is a family-owned and –managed business dedicated to innovative, high-quality products, excellence in the workplace and a long-term commitment to the environment and the communities in which it operates. Based in Racine, Wisconsin, the company is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of household cleaning products and products for home storage, personal care and insect control. The 115-year old company employs more than 9,500 people and sells products in about 100 countries.

STMicroelectronics: STMicroelectronics is the world's third largest independent semiconductor company whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, on Euronext Paris and on the Milan Stock Exchange. The Company designs, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) and discrete devices used in a wide variety of microelectronic applications, including telecommunications systems, computer systems, consumer products, automotive products and industrial automation and control systems. In 2000, the Company's net revenues were $7.8 billion and net earnings were $1.45 billion.

Suncor Energy, Inc. is a Canadian integrated energy company that explores for, acquires, produces, and markets crude oil and natural gas, refines crude oil, and markets petroleum and petrochemical products. Suncor has three principal business units: Oil Sands, Exploration and Production, and Sunoco. Oil Sands produces light sweet and light sour crude oil, diesel fuel and various custom blends from oil sands and markets these products in Canada and the United States. Exploration and Production explores for, acquires, develops, produces and markets crude oil in Canada and natural gas throughout North America. Sunoco refines and markets crude oil and a broad range of petroleum and petrochemical products in Ontario and the United States.

Swiss Re: Founded in 1863 in Zurich, Switzerland, Swiss Re is the world's second largest reinsurer, with roughly 9,000 employees and gross premiums in 2000 of CHF 26 billion (USD$15.3 billion). Standard & Poor's gives the company its AAA rating; Moody's rates it Aaa. Swiss Re does business from over 70 offices in 30 countries. The world over, Swiss Re offers insurers and corporates: classic (re)insurance covers, alternative risk transfer (ART) instruments, and a broad range of supplementary services for comprehensive risk management.

Temple-Inland Inc. is a diversified forestry, forest products and financial services company.  Its three main operating divisions include a Paper Group, which manufactures corrugated packaging products; a Building Products Group, which manufactures a wide range of building products and manages the Company's forest resources consisting of approximately 2.2 million acres of timberland in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Alabama; and the Financial Services Group, which consists of savings bank, mortgage banking, real estate, and insurance brokerage activities.

The Nature Conservancy:  The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit organization founded in 1951, is the world's largest private international conservation group.  TNC has protected over 12,089,000 acres of land in the United States.

Waste Management, Inc. as a leading provider of comprehensive waste management services, Waste Management serves municipal, commercial, industrial and residential customers throughout North America. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, the Company's network of operations includes 284 active landfill disposal sites, 16 waste-to-energy plants, 73 landfill gas-to-energy facilities, 160 recycling plants, 293 transfer stations and more than 1,400 collection facilities. Combined, these resources allow Waste Management to offer a full range of environmental services to approximately 25 million residential and two million commercial customers nationwide.

Wisconsin Energy Corporation, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., is an $8.4 billion holding company with a diversified portfolio of subsidiaries engaged in electric generation; electric, gas, steam and water distribution; pump manufacturing and other non-utility businesses. The corporation’s utilities subsidiaries serve more than one million electric and 950,000 natural gas customers in Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

ZAPCO: Zahren Alternative Power Corporation (ZAPCO), recently acquired by U.S. Energy, is among the largest and most respected developers of Landfill Gas (LFG) projects in the United States. ZAPCO is engaged in the development, financing, and operation of a large and diverse group of LFG-based projects, including waste-to-energy electricity systems, and has executed international trades of greenhouse gas reductions involving over two million tons CO2 equivalent.  ZAPCO operates ten of its twenty-seven LFG projects in the Midwest U.S.