The N.C. Utilities Commission’s first-ever plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions caused by generating electricity in the state has been met with widespread criticism.
Methane, Fracked Gas & Climate
Methane (the main component in natural gas) is 100 times as bad for the climate as carbon dioxide over the short term. Less CO2 is emitted by natural gas than by coal when burned. But significant leakage of methane before burning makes gas a disaster for the climate, as revealed even more by recent science. Yet utilities and the gas industry are still feverishly promoting fracked gas.
NC WARN is working hard to connect the dots between climate change, methane leakage and the fracking boom that is driven by demand from the electric power industry.
Learn more about our methane work here.
Watch a 3-minute video by Cornell University’s Dr. Robert Howarth describing why natural gas is a disastrous strategy for the climate. More videos, PowerPoints and documentation here.
“Everything You Need to Know About Methane”, a primer by Earthjustice.
Jump to a Subcategory
All News Categories
NC Utilities Commission Buys Duke Energy Fiction that New Fossil Fuels Can Decarbonize State’s Electricity — NC WARN News Release
Tragically, the NC Utilities Commission went along with Duke Energy’s massive, climate-wrecking fracked gas expansion. The commission also seemed to go along with Duke’s request to greatly limit new solar projects indefinitely pending billions in new – and likely controversial – transmission projects.
Top Climate Expert Leads 45 Scientists Calling for Gov. Roy Cooper, CEO Lynn Good to Stop Duke Energy’s Huge Fossil Fuel Expansion
A top climate expert leads 45 scientists in writing a letter calling for Gov. Roy Cooper and Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good to stop Duke’s gas expansion.
Top Climate Scientists: Stopping Natural Gas Expansions Can Help “very, very quickly” … But Duke Energy Leaders Blow Off the Warning — News Release from NC WARN
Stopping emissions of natural gas (methane) – a super-potent heat trapper – could “give the world a fighting chance” to prevent “catastrophic global warming” from becoming irreversible. That’s the message from a leading global scientist based at Duke University.
A scam to expand gas: Duke Energy carbon plan — News Release from Charlotte Mecklenburg NAACP & NC WARN
The Charlotte Mecklenburg NAACP and NC WARN today said Duke Energy’s draft carbon plan for North Carolina is a scam designed to keep expanding the use of the very methane gas that is devastating communities and the global climate.
Curbing Other Climate Pollutants, Not Just CO2, Gives Earth a Chance — News release from Duke University
Slashing emissions of carbon dioxide by itself isn’t enough to prevent catastrophic global warming, a new study shows. But if we simultaneously also reduce emissions of methane and other often overlooked climate pollutants, we could cut the rate of global warming in half by 2050 and give the world a fighting chance.
“Moral & Economic Madness” says U.N. Chief of Plans Like Duke Energy’s Gas Expansion — NC WARN News Release
Even as Duke Energy seeks to hobble rooftop solar in North Carolina, science is pouring in showing how disastrous and outdated Duke’s preferred fuel is. With methane emissions breaking all records, climate scientists insist cutting the venting of the highly potent climate pollutant would be the fastest – and likely the only – chance to avert total chaos.
Unused and useless: States must act to end flawed natural gas power plant buildouts — Utility Dive
Nothing exemplifies the irrational utility business model more than the billions of dollars companies have wasted on the massive buildout of natural gas capacity over the last decade, ignoring obvious market trends favoring renewables and energy storage.
NC WARN Climate Emergency Rally!
On November 19th, 2021 NC WARN and our allies rallied outside of Gov. Roy Cooper’s mansion urging him to: Declare a climate emergency! Stop Duke Energy’s fracked gas expansion! Uplift low-income and BIPOC communities being affected the most by superstorms and high electric bills! Side with the people of North Carolina, not Duke Energy!
Groups rally outside Executive Mansion call for climate emergency declaration – CBS 17
Multiple groups with the same cause converged outside the Executive Mansion Friday to urge Gov. Roy Cooper to declare a climate emergency and stop Duke Energy from building 50 gas-burning power units.