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Power industry backs Biden on rejoining Paris climate pact

The United States is already running at the head of the pack in the race to cut greenhouse gas emissions as it rejoins the Paris Agreement, leaders of the energy industry said this week.

The industry was largely supportive of President Joe Biden’s statement move on his first day in office, which would revive its commitment to cut overall greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2025. The enthusiasm was based largely on the relatively rapid pace that greenhouse gas emissions had already been reduced since the Trump administration had abruptly pulled out of the multi-nation pact four years earlier.

“U.S. electric companies collectively have reduced their carbon emissions more than every nation in the world since 2010 and have achieved a 33-percent reduction from 2005 levels as of the end of 2019,” Tom Kuhn, President and CEO of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), said in an Inauguration Day statement. “That is a decade earlier than what was called for in the original U.S. commitment under the Paris Agreement.”

“Today, nearly 40 percent of the electricity that powers our homes and businesses comes from clean, carbon-free sources, including nuclear energy, hydropower, wind and solar energy,” Kuhn said. “Carbon emissions from the U.S. power sector are at their lowest level in more than 30 years — and continue to fall.”

Despite the Trump administration’s support for fossil fuels as a reliable and low-cost energy source, the electric utility industry largely stepped on the gas pedal to advance its own climate goals and meet sometimes-ambitious goals set by various state governments. A number of utilities publicly set net-zero emissions targets for the next decade.

Duke Energy, for example, said in a statement that it was on track to halve its 2005-level carbon emissions by 2030 and had recently set a target of also eliminating methane emissions from its natural-gas business by 2030. Southern Company Chairman, President and CEO Thomas A. Fanning wrote to Biden on Jan. 4 saying the energy company could achieve a 50-percent reduction as early as 2025 – five years earlier than our original goal.”

Lynn Good, Chair, President and CEO of Duke, said rejoining the Paris grand strategy would enable progress to continue more efficiently in the United States by getting all of the players on the same page and preventing any foot-dragging. “As the Biden Administration engages in this critical global dialogue, we look forward to adding our voice and ensuring that the policies, which seek to achieve national emission reduction goals, are cost-effective, market-based and equitable,” she said in a written statement.

Backers of the Paris Agreement have long contended that with the United States being among the world’s largest carbon emitters, the nation needed a “seat at the table” and a voice in the plans implemented by the other signatories. That theory will be tested in November when these nations meet in Scotland for COP26 UN, a major climate change conference sponsored by the United Nations.

Renewable power generators were also supportive of Biden’s action, calling it a means of helping get the economy back on track once the COVID-19 pandemic fades.

“With the right policies and bold actions from the president, the solar industry can help address these challenges, generate billions of dollars in economic activity and put hundreds of thousands of Americans back to work,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association.

The fossil-fuel industry was less enthusiastic about getting back aboard the Paris bandwagon; however, it declared support for the move as long as natural gas received some respect. Gas has been considered a bridge fuel to a sustainable-energy future, and the industry said that gas still had an immediate role to play in overall emission reductions.

“Models show this agreement between nations cannot be achieved without access to natural gas,” said American Petroleum Institute (API) President and CEO Mike Sommers. “And that’s why we will continue to advocate for expanded U.S. LNG exports as a path to transition countries toward cleaner fuels while ensuring that millions of people in developing nations have access to electricity.”

The API also took the opportunity to take an indignant swipe at Biden’s executive order revoking the permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline even though its owner, TC Energy Corp., had earlier in the week committed to running the line completely with renewable power – by purchasing carbon offsets – no later than 2030.

Hil Anderson

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