Glow Your Own

Nuke-power company Exelon announces big emissions cuts by 2020 4

Nuclear-power company Exelon today launched a program it says will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by over 16 million tons a year by 2020 -- more than the company's current total annual emissions. The company's plan calls for buying renewable-energy credits to offset some of its emissions, generating a small amount of electricity from alternative sources such as landfill gas, wood, or crop waste, and complying with recently passed legislation in Illinois requiring the company to help customers reduce their electricity consumption through smart-metering and other measures. The company's largest emissions reductions would come from making some of its natural-gas-burning power plants more efficient, and (much less significantly) from increasing the output of its existing nuclear reactors, the logic being that increasing nuke output could generate increased power without creating more carbon emissions. "This is a mix of things that any sensible person would do," said Exelon CEO John Rowe. Exelon has also advocated for a carbon-trading program in the U.S., especially one under which it could earn credits for generating nuke power.

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  1. Delay And Deny's avatar

    Delay And Deny Posted 1:27 am
    15 Jul 2008

    No Nuke

    Excelon is not a "nuclear power" company, just a power company...it sells electricity.  So, it will try to do what is most profitable and best using whatever means necessary to deliver.
    http://www.exeloncorp.com/aboutus/
    Seems like a good investment to me...
    http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=124298&p= ...
  2. Wolverine Posted 2:04 am
    15 Jul 2008

    Oh Boy!Wow, a nuclear power company is going to save us!
  3. banana republican Posted 4:29 am
    15 Jul 2008

    Bah humbugThey can say whatever they want about what they're going to do in the future, but it's nothing more than a press release.
    When they decide it's easier to fix the amount of tritium they're leaking into the Rock River so it actually complies with the law, instead of just taking a fine every year because it's cheaper, I might start trusting them.
  4. jwebb's avatar

    jwebb Posted 12:58 am
    17 Jul 2008

    Fuzzy mathLet me see- when Kyoto says reduction they actually want a reduction related to 1990 levels.  Exelon comes out and says by 2020 they will reduce more than they currently emit in 2008, huh?  Where's Gore when you need him?  So basically they are saying that if they come up with a better generator, they should get credit for reductions from selling that to other utilities.   No talk of cradle-to-grave measurements. Even better, 23% of their future reduction is from you and me being more conservative.  They get credit for us using less and paying more for it.  I sure hope they get some government subsidies or credits for that hard work instead of citizens.  Maybe they should give us a plan for what they'll do with the increased nuclear waste and aging plants in 2020, 2100, and however long those plants will be a hazard to public and environmental health.

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