Piedmont Natural Gas offers GreenEdge carbon reduction blocks for South Carolina, Tennessee customers
Customers of Piedmont Natural Gas in South Carolina and Tennessee have a new option for reducing the impact of their own natural gas usage through the GreenEdge program – a means to purchase blocks of renewable natural gas environmental attributes and carbon offsets.
Such a block costs $3 per month and equals roughly 12.5 therms of natural gas usage. That money goes toward projects that include forest and wetland protections, along with renewable natural gas projects. Proof of concept can already be seen in North Carolina, where the program has been available since last summer. By the end of 2022, enrolled customers offset 367 metric tons of carbon emissions, or the effects of driving an average car nearly 1 million miles.
“The GreenEdge program was designed based on customer feedback to provide access to tools and programs for customers to pursue their own carbon-reduction goals,” Sasha Weintraub, senior vice president and president of Piedmont Natural Gas, said. “We consider it an important part of Piedmont’s own clean energy transformation, as well. We’re excited to now make GreenEdge available to our South Carolina and Tennessee customers.”
GreenEdge was approved by the South Carolina Public Service Commission in April 2023 and the Tennessee Public Utility Commission in March 2023. A single block purchase is equivalent to a quarter of an average household’s monthly natural gas usage, so with four blocks, many households could claim environmental benefits for the whole of their monthly household natural gas usage, although customers are not limited on how many they can buy.
Once purchased, associated block charges are added to a customer’s bill. According to Piedmont, those customers also receive an annual report showcasing their contributions and the overall effect on GreenEdge.
