Utilities Commission approves new plan to reduce carbon emissions, but advocates are underwhelmed
Author: Lisa Sorg
Around 6 o’clock on the evening of Friday, Dec. 30, when anyone who could be was mentally checked out for the holidays, the North Carolina Utilities Commission dropped one of its most important rulings of the last decade: The 137-page Carbon Plan, the commission’s directive to Duke Energy to drastically reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to do its part in thwarting a planetary crisis. The plan is a requirement under House Bill 951, which Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law in October 2021. It directs the utilities commission to “take all reasonable steps” to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from Duke Energy’s electric generating facilities. The plan sets a goal of 70% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 – just seven years from now. And by 2050, Duke should have achieved carbon neutrality. The commission has the flexibility to delay these benchmarks by up to two years or longer if nuclear or wind power requires more time to be built or to maintain the reliability of the grid. But the planet is out of runway. Globally, the last eight years have been the warmest on record, according to data released this week by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Levels of carbon dioxide and methane continue to increase. “For both gases these are the highest concentrations from the satellite record,” the service repod, “and by including other records, the highest levels for over 2 million years for carbon dioxide and over 800,000 years for methane.”