Holiday lights that cheer up everything from Madras’ Christmas Carol Parade to Grants Pass’ annual welcome to Santa, to the legendary Seaside Turn-Around, will illuminate the importance of renewable energy this season, thanks to Pacific Power’s Blue Sky renewable energy program.

Statewide, 10 Pacific Power communities will have the power used by their local lighting celebrations offset by renewable energy. Overall, community lighting programs are supporting about 211,000 kilowatt-hours of Blue Sky renewable energy. That amount of emission-free power offsets more than 129 tons of carbon dioxide, which is the environmental equivalent of not driving the average car more than 260,950 miles – that’s more than 1,600 roundtrips from Portland to the beach.