Ohio-based electric utility holding company FirstEnergy last Friday (Feb. 9) announced a retreat from its 2030 greenhouse gas reduction goal and a reprieve for two large West Virginia coal-fired power plants.
The same day, a state court in the company’s headquarters city of Akron indicted and arraigned two former top FirstEnergy executives and the former head of Ohio’s utility regulatory commission on 27 counts related to the 2019, $60 million fraud and bribery scandal that got the Republican legislature to pass House Bill 6 subsidizing two economically failing nuclear power plants.
At an earnings conference call, CEO Brian Tierney said, “In 2020, we set a goal of achieving net carbon neutrality by 2050, with an interim goal of reducing our Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030. Achieving the 2030 interim goal was predicated on meaningful emissions reductions at our Fort Martin and Harrison power plants in West Virginia, which account for approximately 99% of our greenhouse gas emissions. We’ve identified several challenges to our ability to meet that interim goal, including resource adequacy concerns in the PJM region and state energy policy initiatives. Given these challenges, we have decided to remove our 2030 interim goal.”
Bloomberg commented, “Changing market conditions also mean those facilities are going to be more profitable to keep open than historically projected.”
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