POINT/COUNTERPOINT Many U.S. utilities plan to hang on to their coal plants for a decade: Sierra Club

From Reuters

“The most coal-dependent U.S. utilities plan to keep around 75% of their coal-fired power plants running for another decade, according to an analysis by the environmental group Sierra Club released on Monday, posing a threat to the climate.”

The Study titled The Dirty Truth About Utility Climate Pledges shows that the 50 U.S. utilities most invested in coal and gas generation have committed to retiring only a quarter of their coal capacity by 2030. “It also found the companies’ plan to add new wind and solar capacity over that period amounting to less than one-fifth of their current coal and gas generation.” Sierra Club claims that utilities are not moving fast enough to transition away from fossil fuels and are unlikely to reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly enough to align the U.S. with the Paris climate agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

View the Sierra Club report here.

First Energy, Duke challenge Sierra Club claims of ‘greenwashing’ on climate goals.

From Utility Dive

NIPSCO is targeting a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2028, relative to a 2005 baseline with no plans to add new gas-fired capacity, and NIPSCO has committed to retire all of its coal capacity by 2030.

Duke Energy Corporation received a score of 2 out of 100 and an F rating in the Sierra Club report, based in part on an 11% coal retirement by 2030 and plans to add gas resources. “The utility replied that Duke ‘is a national leader for carbon emissions reduction in the electric sector,’ and has already reduced emissions 39% since 2005.”

Emily Fisher, senior Vice President of clean energy at Edison Electric Institute (EII), called the Sierra Club report somewhat arbitrary. “They can just look at emissions, because they don’t have to look at it more holistically. It feels a little like an arbitrary acceleration” that doesn’t consider affordability or technology. Fisher noted that utilities are “adding more clean energy resources, and new technologies are on the way. In the coming decade, [EII] sees potential decarbonization progress through advanced nuclear, carbon capture, new transmission, and other technologies.”