Giving Compass' Take:

• Dan Gearino questions the truth of utilities promises for net-zero carbon emissions as they plan to use coal for decades.

• How can local communities hold utilities accountable for creating effective plans for change?

• Learn about why industries need a price on carbon.

While the utilities tout ambitious mid-century climate goals, most plan to rely heavily on coal and natural gas for decades. That's a problem for climate change.

The timing matters. A recent report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius—the aim of the Paris climate agreement—human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide will have to fall to net zero by mid-century. Since CO2 emissions build up in the atmosphere and remain there for centuries, those cuts can't wait until 2050. They have to start now and should be down by nearly half by 2030 for the least disruptive transition, the IPCC shows.

Most of the country's largest investor-owned utilities have released carbon-reduction plans in recent months, often in response to intensifying demands from shareholders and customers to address climate change.

The plans tend to have ambitious long-term targets, but many of the utilities, like Detroit-based DTE, wait decades to make major changes rather than starting an ambitious phase-out quickly, and some expect to rely on carbon capture technology.

DTE pledged to get its operations to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, yet it still intends to run the Monroe plant, one of the largest coal-fired generators in the country, until 2040.

The pressure on utilities to cut emissions is coming from several directions, with shareholders, customers and some state regulators demanding that the companies take action.
Following this kind of advice is ultimately good for the companies, O'Boyle said.

Read the full article about utilities making shallow promises of net-zero carbon emissions by Dan Gearino at Inside Climate News.