Duke Energy Corp., one of the biggest US power providers, removed a mention of climate targets in its latest earnings release as the company builds more natural gas plants and reconsiders its coal plans.
Duke said in its third-quarter earnings release last year that it was “executing an ambitious clean energy transition” and noted its goals to emit net zero methane by 2030 and net zero carbon by 2050. The company’s fourth-quarter release on Thursday said it was “executing an ambitious energy transition,” dropping the world “clean” and leaving out the emissions goals.
“The strategy hasn’t changed,” Duke Chief Executive Officer Lynn Good said in an interview with Bloomberg TV, noting the company’s commitment to affordability, reliablity and increasingly clean energy. “We do see an uptick in gas generation that wouldn’t have been the case five years ago just as we put together plans on how we are going to serve the load in this moment.”
A Duke representative said in an email, “While our long-term business strategy and our climate goals remain the same, we recently adjusted the language in our company boilerplate to emphasize the near-term, essential nature of meeting our customers’ evolving needs and the increasing growth in front of us.”
Demand for electricity is surging with the rapid development of data centers and artificial intelligence, along with manufacturing and the overall electrification of the economy. The demand boom has made it more difficult for utilities to pursue climate targets such as retiring old coal plants and avoiding the construction of new gas plants.
The move comes as President Donald Trump is working to unleash US production and exports of fossil fuels, while also vowing to put an end to spending on climate-friendly policies he has deemed wasteful. Duke said late last year it would consider shifting its plans for coal plants if Trump follows through on his promises to terminate rules that stifle power-plant pollution.
Duke is currently starting construction on more than 2 gigawatts of natural-gas generation in North and South Carolina that was approved last year and expects to have about 5 gigawatts of new natural gas in service by the end of 2029, according to the company. The company is also building out clean power sources like solar farms and plans to add 10 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2029.
— With assistance from Arvelisse Bonilla Ramos
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