But it produced 45 percent more power than AEP, which was fifth in the nation for power produced, while Charlotte-based Duke ranked first.
That's according to the 2014 Benchmarking Air Emissions report issued Wednesday. It tracks power production and emissions of carbon, sodium dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury for the 100 largest utilities in the nation.
“The electric power industry is firmly on the path toward a low carbon energy future, and history shows that it is not only capable of meeting new pollution limits, but that it can do so while keeping our lights on and our economy growing,” said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a nonprofit advocate of sustainable investing. The organization helped produce the report.
The report shows power production and carbon emissions continue to decline nationwide. But carbon and other pollutants are declining more quickly than the drop in power production.
That is certainly the case for Duke. Taking the combined totals for Duke and Progress Energy, which merged in 2012, Duke’s power production dropped to 231.7 million megawatt-hours in 2012 from 251 million in 2010.
That's a reduction of 7.7 percent. Over the same period, Duke’s carbon emissions dropped 16.3 percent to 134.4 million tons from 160.5 million in 2011.
A big reason for the decrease at Duke, and also nationally, is the declining reliance on coal. In 2012, Duke produced 100.9 million megawatt-hours of electricity from coal, down 25.9 percent from 136.1 million in 2010.
Coal accounted for 43.6 percent of the power Duke produced across its six states in 2012. Duke and Progress produced 54.2% of their power from coal in the six states in 2010.
Emissions have improved significantly since Ceres began producing the report 10 years ago.
Lubber noted in a conference call that the report comes out as the Environmental Protection Agency prepares to issue its first carbon regulations for coal plants next week. She says cries have already come from many quarters that the regulations will hurt the economy and kill jobs. But she says the same claims have been made every time the EPA has prepared to issue new air-quality standards for the energy industry.
“Each time the power industry has demonstrated its capacity to innovate and to meet the standards cost-effectively while producing net economic benefits and cleaner air,” she said. “EPA’s proposed standards will stimulate further investment in low-carbon, low-risk resources like renewable power and energy efficiency.”
The report was published by Ceres in cooperation with Bank of America, four large power producers (Calpine, Entergy, Exelon and Public Service Enterprise Group) and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The data from 2012, the most recent year for which all the information is available, was compiled by M.J. Bradley & Associates, a Boston-based environmental consulting firm.
John Downey covers the energy industry and public companies for the Charlotte Business Journal.