Exelon's Climate Plan: A Big Bupkis

Exelon launched a public relations blitz today with a slick corporate report, a full page ad in the NY Times (and who knows where else), and an announcement carried far and wide by a largely credulous business press. The story?

Exelon to Slash Greenhouse Gases by 2020.

That was the way Forbes.com ran the story off the AP wire, and the 50 stories on Google news play the same refrain. You'd think Exelon had licked the climate crisis single-handedly.

In actual fact the company is making some modest emissions reductions far short of what science requires "in a bid to shape the debate on carbon dioxide rules and to get a jump on compliance," as Matthew Wald of the Times put it.

It's hard to criticize a utility whose CEO, John Rowe, comes out and says:

The science is overwhelming - climate change is happening now and human activity is the primary cause.

But someone's gotta do it, because from the standpoint of the global warming challenge, what's in the much-touted plan is bupkis.

How dare I sneeze at 15 million tons of emissions reductions annually? The equivalent of taking 3 million cars off the road, as Exelon calculates? Because it's a stalking horse for not ever doing enough, and for positioning the company in a mantle of virtue woven from an insufficient effort.

The company claims it will reduce its emissions about 10% from 2001 levels by 2020. About a quarter of that achievement was already in company plans. It is nothing new -- upgrades to its nuclear plants. Another quarter of the gain is to come from reducing the energy demand of its customers through energy efficiency programs. And a third quarter is to come from reducing energy consumption in its own buildings. All those things make sense and help the company increase profits. That's just good business practice.

Only a small fraction of proposed reductions - 2/15ths -- would come from actually reducing existing fossil plant emissions. That's the true climate challenge in the utility sector, and Exelon is not exactly stepping up to face it.

There's also a big omission. Matthew Wald again:

But the plan is remarkable for what it does not emphasize. Despite a national focus on solar and wind power, discussions in Congress about renewed tax credits for investments in windmills and solar systems and debate over a federal requirement for a minimum level of "renewable" energy, Exelon calls for relatively little.

You'd think if this company were truly serious about the climate crisis, they'd have announced a plan to investors and analysts on an earnings call. The CFO would have provided hard, sober numbers and given a proper accounting of the meaning and significance of the initiative in relation to the science; and framed the climate issue in terms of financial risk exposure given pending carbon regulation and rising fuel prices.

Instead, we get a slick marketing piece that is missing essential information. Like, what is Exelon's carbon footprint right now? All we are told is that reductions over the next twelve years will be greater than the company's emissions in 2008. What does that mean? It's not possible to evaluate. It's a statement designed to elicit a thoughtless wow.

And as for taking 3 million cars off the road? They don't say for how long the cars would be off the road, and for the life of me I couldn't come to a calculation to justify their claim. It's the problem with the corporate-speak brochure. It spins a good story at the expense of talking clearly about reductions in terms the science, policy and business community can understand.

The plan also stops at 2020. How come? To avoid difficult discussion of new nuclear plants? Exelon runs 17 of them now -- 20% of US capacity -- and so already enjoys a low carbon footprint as compared with peers in the utility sector that burn coal for power. Surely the company is thinking beyond 2020, but you wouldn't know it.

The company claims credit for many climate actions. Read the green box on page 11 of its report for a summary of its record of early action. But those, and this new initiative it's bragging about, have a very distinct self-serving flavor.

Here's a litmus test. If all US companies emulated the standard Exelon just set, where we would be in 2020?

In deep trouble.

Comments

[JoAnnCr]

Exelon is a huge supporter of Obama.