By Huck Fairman
While fossil fuel companies have for years promised to decarbonize, the truth is that very few are living up to their promises. This revelation was published by the Sierra Club’s report, “The Dirty Truth About Utility Climate Pledges.” The report includes an interactive tool that allows residents to see if their local utility “is meeting its climate goals.”
One of the report’s authors, Leah Stokes of the University of California, Santa Barbara, found that of the 50 parent companies most reliant on fossil fuels for energy generation, 37 received either a D or F grade on their progress to reach the goal of 80% clean energy to be achieved by 2030.
Given the drought, wildfires, and powerful storms that California and much of the West has recently experienced, the region “desperately needs” utility companies to stop “greenwashing” and “sowing climate denial,” and turn seriously to clean energy.
To do this would require energy companies retiring coal-powered plants, not following up on construction of gas-powered plants, and actually building renewable energy systems.
Holly Bender, Sierra Club’s senior director of energy campaigns, stated that the “country (and really the world) urgently needs these steps” if we are to preserve our environments that we have known, and depend on.
