Dear John, On January 25th, the Sierra Club published a report titled The Dirty Truth About Utility Climate Pledges. Read the introduction to the report here where they state "Dozens of utilities may have pledged to become “carbon neutral” by 2050 -- but research conducted by the Sierra Club shows that all but a handful of utilities in the United States aren’t moving toward clean energy in the time frame needed to avoid the worst of the climate crisis."
"Sierra Club analysts examined plans for 79 operating companies owned by 50 parent companies" and evaluated their plans for retiring coal plants, adding gas plants, and building out renewable generation. On a grading curve I'd like to have had in High School, less than a handful managed an "A." The report is worth reading to see how We Energies and its parent WEC scored compared to the industry.
Exponential Growth: i.e. The addition of CO2 to the atmosphere by humans began growing exponentially in the late 1700s.
Example of exponential growth: If you had a very large sheet of paper and repeatedly folded it in half, how many times would you need to fold it to reach the moon? Would you guess thousands, millions, or billions? If you guessed 45 times you would be correct! Surprised?
Humans have been "folding" the added CO2 once every 35 years since before 1800 (6 1/4 folds - try it). Where would we be in another 35 years if we don't stop?
350 Milwaukee
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