Duke Energy Corp., Dominion Energy Inc. and Southern Co., which together produce 4.2% of all U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, will miss their decarbonization targets if the three electric utilities move forward with planned investments in fossil-fuel plants and other infrastructure, according to a report produced by Synapse Energy Economics Inc., a Massachusetts consulting firm.
Majority Action, a nonprofit whose Climate Majority Project urges investors to confront climate change more aggressively, commissioned the March 9 report.
"Duke, Dominion and Southern all made decarbonization commitments to their shareholders, yet their investment plans will significantly undermine their chances of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050," Eli Kasargod-Staub, executive director of Majority Action, said in a press release. "In order to reach these targets, the boards and leadership of these companies must publish comprehensive and credible plans for how they will re-align their capital investments to achieve net-zero carbon emissions, tie executive pay to achieving these goals, and align their policy influence activities accordingly."
Philip Sgro, a spokesman for Duke Energy, said the report's assessment that the utility will miss its net-zero target is based on "an old roadmap" from its most recent integrated resource plans, which were approved prior to Duke's announcement that it would transition to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Duke Energy has cut its greenhouse-gas emissions from 2005 levels by 39%, "largely due to bringing natural gas online to replace coal," Sgro said.
Dominion Energy and Southern Co. did not return requests for comment.
Lingering coal plants
The report said the companies, which together serve more than 15 million U.S. customers, own roughly 12.7% of U.S. generation capacity and are responsible for 12.4% of U.S. power sector CO2 emissions.
Some 75% of the companies' remaining coal capacity will still be online beyond 2030, according to the report, and they plan to add more than 22 GW of natural gas capacity over the next two decades, "representing nearly a third more gas capacity coming online than coal capacity being retired over the next 20 years."
"Utilities are making lofty pledges to tackle the climate crisis, but some of the biggest polluters aren't on track to meet their goals," Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, said in the press release. "Duke, Southern and Dominion are some of the nation's biggest contributors to climate change, and they need to commit to concrete transition plans that will get us to 100% clean, renewable energy."
Southern's emissions-reduction goal is to have "low-to-no" carbon emissions by 2050, while Dominion set a target to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Duke is also aiming for net-zero emissions by 2050 and said it would reduce emissions by 50% of 2005 levels by 2030.
According to figures in the report, more than 71% of Southern Co.'s nameplate capacity of 39.9 GW is fueled by coal or natural gas. Duke's nameplate capacity of 63.5 GW includes more than 67% coal and natural gas, while Dominion's 27.3 GW is more than 65% coal and natural gas.
An S&P Global Market Intelligence investigation, published in December, found that utilities continue to invest heavily in natural gas plants even though electricity demand is barely growing and those plants are likely to become uneconomic well before their planned lifespans are up.