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🚨🚨🚨 NEW (and troubling) analysis: Even though clean energy is cheaper than ever, and the climate emergency is more urgent than ever, the nation's largest electric utilities are planning to *slow down* their decarbonization pace. Thread! energyandpolicy.org/utility-carbon… 1/8
All of the data we used in our analysis are from the utilities' own climate goals. While some utilities, like @NIPSCO, @xcelenergy and @ConsumersEnergy are planning to speed up their decarbonization, others like @DukeEnergy, @DomEnergyNews and @AEPnews are slowing down. 2/8
Why the split? @bradplumer correctly identifies the answer in this great @nytclimate story: GAS. Companies like Duke and Dominion want to build new fracked gas plants (and pipelines!). That would be a disaster for customers and for the climate. energyandpolicy.org/utility-carbon… 3/8
This graph of @DomEnergyNews vs. @xcelenergy's carbon goals shows the split perfectly. The companies’ decarbonization pathways tracked one another closely from 2005 until 2017. At that point, Xcel’s trajectory starts turning sharply downward, while Dominion’s flattens out. 4/8 
Entergy, the utility behind the "actors paid to feign support of gas plant" scandal, set a "goal" that would actually allow it to *increase* its emissions between now and 2030. The company acknowledges that its goal is not aligned with a 2C climate target, no less 1.5C. 5/8
Speaking of targets: IPCC reporting says that global electricity must fully decarbonize by 2050 to reach either a 1.5C or 2C scenario. Of US utilities, only Xcel has made that commitment. Every other US utility's goal suggests that they're fine with climate catastrophe. 6/8
Our analysis assumed that companies are making these goals in good faith, e.g. they really intend to hit them. For at least one utility, there's evidence suggesting that might not be the case. That's Southern Company. Much more on that here: energyandpolicy.org/fanning-carbon/ 7/8
A final note: most utilities set these goals to appease increasingly climate-concerned investors, not policymakers. Those investors, like @NYCComptroller, deserve to know that many utilities' are setting woefully insufficient goals and hoping they won't notice. 8/8
Some folks who might be interested: @cleantechsonia, @EnergyInnovLLC, @oboylemm, @rgunns, @ricoconnell8, @OilChangeUS, @maryannehitt, @CeresNews, @electronecon, @ALCassady
How could we forget @leahstokes!
