March 4, 2024
PHOENIX – Salt River Project’s Board of Directors today approved updates to the utility’s 2035 Sustainability Goals, including a few modifications from the previous targets.
With today’s revisions to its “Generation Carbon” goals, SRP now aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 82% on an intensity basis, from a 2005 baseline. This is an improvement from the utility’s previous target of 65% reductions by 2035. However, it falls short of what’s required to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius and avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Multiple economic modelling efforts have found that, in order to meet the United States’ Nationally Determined Contribution under the 2021 Paris Agreement, electric utilities need to reduce greenhouse gas pollution at least 80% by 2030, as compared to a 2005 baseline.
WRA welcomes this update to SRP’s Generation Carbon goal, as it is more ambitious than the original proposal, as well as the commitment to report on mass-based emissions reductions. However, this new goal still falls short and only translates to approximately a 20% reduction in total tons of carbon dioxide by 2030. So, while this updated Generation Carbon proposal is a step in the right direction, it’s important to note the significant work still ahead.
SRP’s Generation Carbon goal is an intensity-based metric, rather than mass-based. If SRP set a mass-based (or absolute) goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, that cap would apply to its system regardless of how many new people arrive to its service area – which includes parts of Phoenix, the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the country.
But with an intensity-based metric, emissions are measured relative to a specific unit, in this case megawatt-hours of electricity generated. SRP’s Integrated System Plan released in October 2023 predicts significant increases in the total number of megawatt-hours it will generate. By obscuring the impacts of system growth, intensity-based metrics present a misleadingly rosy picture of SRP’s climate impact.
SRP is the second-largest electric utility in Arizona but has one of the weakest plans among utilities in the West to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. It’s also the only major utility in the West with no plan to transition away from expensive and highly polluting coal plants, like the Springerville Unit 4 and Coronado plants, continuing to put the health of all Arizonans at risk.
In recent polling conducted for WRA by Data for Progress, 80% of Arizona voters across party lines would support their utility provider investing in new clean energy sources. And 62% of voters think investments in clean energy over fossil fuels will improve public health and pollution.
“Our communities deserve cleaner air. We can’t fight climate change without reducing the total tons of carbon emitted from the power sector,” added Routhier. “With appropriate planning, the transition to clean energy sources can be undertaken while still maintaining reliability and affordability.”
WRA served as a member of the Sustainability Advisory Group, convened by SRP in October 2023, and has been actively engaged with SRP staff. The organization will continue to work closely with the utility’s transition to renewable energy, reduce carbon emissions, and deliver stronger sustainability goals that better serve the health and wellbeing of all Arizonans.
Media Contact:
James Quirk, 908-902-3177, james.quirk@westernresources.org
