Duke Energy, one of the nation's largest electric utilities and burners of coal, wants to dramatically reduce the noxious stuff coming out of its smokestacks. And it wants to do it this year. Duke, which has several plants in Greater Cincinnati, has set a new goal for 2008 of reducing sulfur dioxide emissions from its coal-fired power plants by 35 percent (from 2006 levels) and nitrogen oxide emissions by 10 percent. The goals are identified in its just-released 2007/2008 Sustainability Report.
In recent years, Duke has pursued a policy of reducing its emissions of greenhouse gases, while at the same time trying to minimize the impact on its bottom line and the potential disruption to the regional economies it serves. Duke, the nation's third-largest producer of carbon dioxide emissions, wants to cut its carbon dioxide emissions in half by 2030, largely by reducing its use of coal as a fuel to generate electricity.
Its emission-cutting efforts in 2007 included completing nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide control projects at several plants, getting approval to build two cleaner coal-fired plants, developing plans to build nuclear and combustion turbine power plants and acquiring a wind-energy firm, Tierra Energy.
Duke CEO Jim Rogers admits that the 2030 goal of halving carbon dioxide emissions could be a stretch, but says it should spark breakthroughs in environmentally friendly technologies. "Achieving siginficant carbon reductions over the next two decades will require more than incremental change," he says. "We need a whole new way of thinking about energy - how we generate it and how we use it."
Writer: David Holthaus
Source: Tom Williams, Duke Energy
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