Duke Energy’s new resource plan fails to address its role as the worst climate polluter in Indiana and the U.S.

PLAINFIELD, Ind. — Duke Energy Indiana’s newest plan for providing electricity to nearly one million Hoosier households fails to address Duke’s responsibility as the biggest carbon polluter in both Indiana and the United States to move rapidly away from climate disrupting fossil fuels and build out the clean energy infrastructure communities demand and deserve. 

Despite calls from thousands of customers and dozens of city, county and state elected officials to transition from fossil fuels by 2030, Duke Energy Indiana released a 20-year energy plan today that:

• Continues to operate over 2,000 MW of coal-burning generation beyond the scientifically-determined climate threshold of 2030;

• Continues to waste customer money on the Edwardsport coal gasification plant, the last remaining such plant in the country.

• Edwardsport is the most-expensive power plant in Indiana —  it loses money the majority of the hours it is online, and its retirement would immediately save customers tens of millions per year.

• Duke raised the specter of installing the expensive and unproven Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) technology at Edwardsport as a way to punt the decision on converting the unit to operate on gas. This is an outrageous prospect that would waste more customer money by doubling down on failed technology, and adding another expensive untested technology in CCS — even as their industrial customers are suing them at the state supreme court to stop coal burning at Edwardsport now.

• Build more than 1,000 MW of climate-polluting gas generation within the next decade.

 In response, Wendy Bredhold, senior representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign in Indiana, issued the following statement:

“We called Duke’s last energy plan a climate disaster and the incremental progress in this one doesn’t go nearly far enough to avert climate catastrophe. Duke is ignoring the demands of thousands of customers — and mayors, city, county and town councilors, and state legislators representing thousands more — for strong climate action and a transition from costly fossil fuels to affordable renewable energy within this decade.

“This plan is flawed because Duke’s assumptions are based on their desire to keep burning fossil fuels no matter the impact on people or the environment. Indiana regulators should be empowered to reject such a plan, as regulators are in other Duke states.”

Rahul Durai, founding member and director of operations and legislative organizing with Confront the Climate Crisis, added:

“While Duke Energy's newly-announced integrated resource plan is an improvement from before, it fails to respond to the climate crisis as the crisis it is. Our planet is on fire. The U.N. secretary-general called this crisis ‘code red for humanity.’ Hoosiers are already experiencing impacts of the climate crisis, not to mention other devastating environmental injustices. 

“It’s unacceptable for Duke to continue to burn coal until 2035 and burn fracked gas interminably, as it has proposed. Duke needs to step up its game to protect our future. I want to live in an Indiana with clean air, clean water and a thriving economy. Duke has the power to make that possible, and it must act now.”