Bonnie Raitt Launches Her `Green Highway' on Tour
HOLLYWOOD--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Aug. 9, 2002--Capitol Records:| -- | Traveling Displays, Hybrid Cars, Wind Power Offsetting Electricity Usage and New Web Site Offer Alternative Energy Solutions to Economic and Environmental Woes |
| -- | "Green Highway" partners promoting sustainable living include Green Mountain Energy Company, Honda's Hybrid Cars, National BioDiesel Board and Others Working Toward a Cleaner Planet |
Nine-time Grammy winner and long-time environmental activist Bonnie Raitt is definitely giving them something to talk about this summer: She has just launched her first-ever traveling environmental midway, Green Highway, sharing the message of clean energy and sustainable living along her summer concert tour with Lyle Lovett. This eco-village and accompanying Web site feature exhibits of products and organizations working in harmony with the environment, bringing us alternatives which are as good for the economy and jobs as they are for the quality of our lives in years to come.
Green Mountain Energy Company, the nation's largest retail provider of cleaner energy, will be supporting the generation of enough wind power for the 42 shows on the tour to make the tour's electricity usage effectively neutral in its impact on global warming. The company will be supporting the generation of enough new wind power to cover the electricity usage for the tour, estimated to be approximately 500 megawatt hours based on other performances at the venues. Based on this estimate of electricity usage for the tour, it will offset the production of 327 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), which avoids as much CO2 as not driving a car 726,600 miles.
"It's no accident that we're in danger of losing both our ecological and our economic well-being at the same time," explained Raitt, who created the Green Highway concept along with colleagues Kathy Kane and Harvey Wasserman. "I feel too many government and corporate policies are inseparably shortsighted, and we've created Green Highway to demonstrate that working in harmony with nature can offer real solutions for preserving both our planet and our prosperity."
Two important components of the Green Highway midway are Honda's Hybrid vehicles -- Insight and Civic Hybrid cars, which employ a small gasoline engine coupled with a high-output electric motor to reduce emissions and provide excellent fuel efficiency. Honda's two cars will be at every concert in conjunction with the Green Highway exhibits. In addition, some of the Green Highway tour vehicles will run on B20, a biodiesel fuel that is made from fat or vegetable oil (usually soy) and offers a cleaner-burning alternative to standard diesel.
"I think it's wonderful that Bonnie Raitt is leading by example using a farm-grown fuel that decreases emissions and dependence on foreign oil," said Bob Metz, president of the National BioDiesel Board and a South Dakota soybean farmer. "Biodiesel is beginning to enjoy commercial success as one of the fastest-growing alternative fuels available."
"The presence of these companies and their products means they endorse our basic principle of ecological harmony, and our belief in the timeless Quaker philosophy -- that you can do good at the same time you are doing well," Raitt said of the tour's sponsors, which in addition to Green Mountain Energy Company, Honda Hybrid Cars and the National BioDiesel Board include Marvin Windows and Doors, ShoreBank Pacific's Eco-Deposits, BP Solar, American Wind Energy Association, Guayaki Yerba Mate Tea, Aloha Bay "Petroleum-free" Candle Company and American Solar Energy Society. "Their presence does not imply a blanket endorsement by us, simply that they adhere to the core principle of the Green Highway, that our economic life must run in harmony with the sanctity of the natural environment."
Bonnie Raitt is as well known for her commitment to social activism as she is for her music. She has been involved with the environmental movement since the mid-1970s and was a founding member of MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy), which produced the historic 1979 NO NUKES concerts at Madison Square Garden, which resulted in a platinum-selling triple album, and the feature-length movie directed by Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple. Raitt has been especially active in the fight to preserve ancient forests, performing numerous benefit concerts, lobbying in Washington and twice committing civil disobedience in support of ecologically sound government and corporate policies.
With three decades of recording and touring under her belt, multi-Platinum-selling Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Bonnie Raitt is clearly in her prime. "Silver Lining," her 16th and most recent album, was produced by Raitt, Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake. It has been hailed by critics as one of the best albums of her career and has been certified Gold by the R.I.A.A. for sales of more than 500,000 copies. Her recent television appearances have included "Late Show with David Letterman," "The Today Show," "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "Oprah," the "Early Show" and one of the final episodes of "The Rosie O'Donnell Show."
This summer marks the third time Raitt and Lyle Lovett have toured together. Raitt took Lovett on his first national tour in 1986, shortly after the release of his debut album.
Info regarding tour dates, Green Highway nonprofits and partners available via fax or email.
