PG&E Sustainability Report: Plant CO2 Emissions Up 31% Power
plants operated by Pacific Gas & Electric increased their
absolute carbon emissions almost 31 percent year-on-year in
2011, according to the company’s latest sustainability report.
In 2010, the company produced 1,545,892 metric tons of CO2
equivalent. In 2011 this figure jumped to 2,024,206. The
increase of roughly 500,000 metric tons of CO2e stems from the
opening of a new generating station that produced around 764,000
metric tons of CO2e in 2011, along with a shuttering of the
company’s Humboldt Bay power plant, which produced around
276,000 metric tons of CO2e in 2010. For its 2011 emissions,
PG&E began reporting the greenhouse gases from natural gas
supplied to customers. Emissions from this source totaled over
39 million metric tons of CO2e in 2011. The company says it is
committed to meeting California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard
requirement to deliver 33 percent renewable energy by the end of
2020. PG&E has a goal to reduce energy use by