The NC Utilities Commission just announced that it will conduct additional proceedings to take a deeper look into Duke Energy’s hotly contested 15-year Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). This is yet another major problem for the nation’s worst climate-polluting electricity provider.
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.
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NC energy bill has one big beneficiary (and it’s not you) — News & Observer/Charlotte Observer
North Carolina House Republican lawmakers and Duke Energy’s representatives spent months in closed-door meetings hammering out an energy bill that somehow emerged, politically speaking, without any energy. Despite efforts to build up suspense about House Bill 951, the measure landed with a thud last week.
As climate emergency grows more urgent, Duke Energy seeks to supersize CO2 pollution — NC Policy Watch
Energy giant must halt planned fossil fuel expansion, aggressively embrace renewable energy, storage, conservation
Major Gift to Duke Energy Introduced in the NC Legislature — Statement from NC WARN
By supporting Duke Energy’s plans to build fossil fuel power plants, H951 clashes wildly with climate science and economics. Just weeks ago, Duke University’s Drew Shindell was lead author of an unprecedented United Nations-backed methane report calling for a halt to the expansion of gas infrastructure
AG calls on NC regulators to reject Duke Energy long-term plant construction plans — Charlotte Business Journal
The N.C. Attorney General’s office has called on state regulators to reject Duke Energy Corp.’s proposed long-term plant construction plans, despite a debate over whether regulators have the authority to do so.
Cut methane emissions to avert global temperature rise, UN-backed study urges — UN News Release
The Global Methane Assessment outlines the benefits of mitigating methane, a key ingredient in smog, which include preventing some 260,000 premature deaths and 775,000 asthma-related hospital visits annually, as well as 25 million tonnes in crop losses… “Cutting methane is the strongest lever we have to slow climate change over the next 25 years.”
Global Methane Assessment: Benefits and Costs of Mitigating Methane Emissions — United Nations Report
The assessment highlights the critical role that cutting methane emissions, including from the fossil fuel industry, plays in slowing the rate of global warming. Cutting human-caused methane by 45% this decade would keep warming beneath a threshold agreed by world leaders. There are multiple benefits to acting including: the rapid …
Halting the Vast Release of Methane Is Critical for Climate, U.N. Says — New York Times
A landmark United Nations report is expected to declare that reducing emissions of methane, the main component of natural gas, will need to play a far more vital role in warding off the worst effects of climate change.
Ahead of the Climate Summit, Environmental Groups Urge Biden to Champion Methane Reductions as a Quick Warming Fix — Inside Climate News
Methane cuts remain essential to slow climate change over the coming decades and limit warming to 1.5C.
“Very Scary Indeed” … New Science Reaffirms Duke Energy’s Huge Gas Expansion is Fueling Climate Calamity — News Release from NC WARN
New federal data show global atmospheric concentrations of methane at a record high just as a separate Harvard study shows the US oil and gas industry is emitting far more methane than earlier estimated.