PPL Corp. was lighting the peace candle on the west side of its 22-story headquarters building in Allentown, PA, Thursday night and continuing through the weekend “as a symbol of the light that the American spirit can bring to even the darkest circumstances.” The commemorative gesture, and an accompanying donation, was just one of the many donations and supportive messages from energy companies in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States Sept. 11, 2001.

BP, Chevron, Texaco and Amerada Hess each have announced $5 million corporate donations to aid the victims and for restoration of facilities following the catastrophic attacks in New York City, Washington and southwestern Pennsylvania Williams is supporting the Sept. 11 Fund with a $1 million donation and Duke Energy has donated $500,000 and CMS Energy $50,000 to the American Red Cross.

“The lighting of this candle, which normally occurs only at the holiday season, is a way for all of us at PPL to express our hope for a world in which peace triumphs over acts of violence,” said PPL CEO William F. Hecht.

Dave O’Reilly of Chevron and Glenn F. Tilton of Texaco, said in a joint statement: “All of us share deep feelings of sympathy for those who lost mothers, fathers, sons or daughters, neighbors, friends or colleagues. While we grieve, we also turn our attention to the daunting challenge of rescue, relief and recovery, and we recognize the financial and logistical scale of these efforts. We hope this pledge will help in some way with the necessary work that must be done in the coming days, weeks and months.” The merging companies said they would work with national, state and local relief agencies to distribute the funds where they are needed most.

BP said its initial $5 million donation will include:

In addition, a BP Employee Disaster Relief Fund has been established in response to interest expressed by employees. BP employees around the globe can make contributions to assist those affected by the tragedy. For every dollar given by an employee, BP will match those funds on a three to one basis.

BP also reiterated its commitment made on Tuesday not to increase wholesale and retail gasoline prices and confirmed “we have adequate stocks of fuel for the U.S. market.”

Amerada Hess said it had pledged $5 million to help the families of New York City firefighters, police officers and other rescue workers who died or were injured helping victims of the attack on the World Trade Center.

“As a company based in New York, we are deeply appreciative of the heroic and courageous efforts of the New York City firefighters, police officers and other rescue workers who have responded to this tragedy. We are acutely aware of the pain and suffering of thousands of families and the extraordinary efforts being made by relief organizations. Our hopes and prayers are with the families of all those affected,” said John Hess, CEO of Amerada Hess.

Williams Gas Pipeline has donated $1 million to launch the September 11th Fund, which was created by the New York Community Trust and the United Way of New York City to mobilize financial resources to provide support through emergency assistance to agencies and nonprofits.

Funds will be administered by the two organizations, which will form a distribution committee to ensure that resources are deployed effectively in New York and other cities affected by these tragic events. The effort is supported by the Washington-based Council on Foundations.

Duke Energy on Wednesday said it was making an immediate $500,000 donation to the American Red Cross. In addition, the company will make an unlimited dollar-for-dollar match of donations made by individual Duke Energy employees to the American Red Cross through Oct. 31, 2001.

“There is an urgent need for recovery and healing after Tuesday’s events,” said Rick Priory, Duke chairman.

Unocal Corp. said it is donating $100,000 to support emergency relief efforts, including $50,000 to the American Red Cross and $50,000 to the September 11th Fund. “The attacks on innocent American civilians and military personnel is a national tragedy,” said Charles R. Williamson, Unocal CEO. “By these donations, we hope to assist immediate efforts now under way to help our fellow citizens whose lives have been disrupted by these heinous acts.”

The various charitable and relief organizations accepting donations for their work in the current tragedy can be found listed at https://www.helping.org/promos/cs_wtc.adp.

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