Inside Clean Energy: Net Zero by 2050 Has Quickly Become the New Normal for the Largest U.S. Utilities

October 2, 2020

CHESHIRE, OH - SEPTEMBER 11 : A bird flies by the emissions from the Gavin Power Plant on September 11, 2019 in Cheshire, Ohio. In 2002, the company that owns the Gavin Power Plant, American Electric Power, reached a settlement with the town's residents for $20 million so they would move and not hold the power plant liable for any health issues. A few of the residents stayed in the town while most moved away. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

In 2018, when Xcel Energy became the first large U.S. utility to pledge to get to net-zero carbon dioxide emissions, I wondered how long it would take for those kinds of commitments to become the industry standard.

The answer, as we learned in recent days, is “less than two years.”

Ameren and Entergy each issued plans to get to net-zero emissions by 2050, joining a list of some of their largest peers like Duke Energy and Dominion Energy.

Also, Vistra Energy, the country’s largest independent power company that is not a utility, released a plan this week to get to net-zero by 2050 and said it would close all seven of its Midwestern coal-fired power plants by 2027.