In its report “Corporate Governance and Climate Change: Making the Connection,” Ceres evaluated how companies are addressing climate change through five key factors: board oversight, management performance, public disclosure, greenhouse gas emissions accounting and strategic planning. In its evaluation of AEP, Ceres noted the company’s plans to build the first large-scale Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) clean-coal power plants as well as AEP’s voluntary commitment to cap and reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by approximately 46 million metric tons between 2003 and the end of the decade.
“AEP has been quietly but actively engaged in the debate about how to successfully address global climate change since the early 1990s, and we are very proud that our long-term efforts to serve as a leader in our industry on this issue are being recognized,” said Michael G. Morris, AEP chairman, president and chief executive officer. “We’ve long believed it is important for our company to go beyond simply talking about what should be done and move forward with real reductions in our current greenhouse gas emissions and investments in clean-coal generation that will reduce future greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fueled generation.”
AEP is the first and largest U.S. utility to join the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the world’s first and North America’s only voluntary, legally binding GHG emissions reduction and trading program. As a member of CCX, AEP committed to gradually reduce, avoid or sequester its GHG emissions by 6 percent below the average of its 1998 to 2001 emission levels by 2010. Through this commitment, AEP will reduce or offset approximately 46 million metric tons of GHG emissions by the end of the decade.
AEP is achieving its GHG reductions through a broad portfolio of actions, including power plant efficiency improvements, renewable generation such as wind and biomass co-firing, off-system GHG reduction projects, reforestation projects and the direct purchase of emission credits through CCX.
AEP already has made efficiency improvements to its current generating fleet, retired inefficient gas-fired generation, enhanced the performance of its nuclear generation and expanded its use of renewable generation. The company is one of the larger generators and distributors of wind energy in the United States, operating 310 megawatts (MW) of wind generation in Texas and purchasing an additional 373 MW of wind generation from wind facilities in Oklahoma and Texas. AEP also has invested nearly $25 million in terrestrial sequestration projects designed to conserve and reforest sensitive areas and offset more than 20 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) over the next 40 years.
Going forward, AEP is focused on developing and deploying new technology that will reduce the GHG emissions of future coal-fueled power plants. In August 2004, AEP was the first electric utility to announce plans to scale up IGCC technology to build baseload, coal-fueled power plants with less environmental impact. AEP has filed for regulatory approval in Ohio to build the first large, commercial-scale (629-MW) IGCC plant by 2010. AEP also has initiated the regulatory process to build a second 629-MW IGCC plant in West Virginia. Both plants would be designed to accommodate retrofit of technology to capture CO2 emissions.
A strong supporter of research to address GHG emissions from coal-fueled power generation, AEP is a member of the FutureGen Alliance, which, in conjunction with the Department of Energy, will build the world’s first nearly emission-free plant to produce electricity and hydrogen from coal while capturing and permanently storing CO2 in geologic formations.
Additionally, AEP’s Mountaineer Plant in New Haven, W.Va., is the site of a $4.2-million carbon sequestration research project through which scientists from Battelle Memorial Institute are seeking to better understand the capability of deep saline aquifers for permanent and ecologically safe storage of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
Ceres is a national coalition of investors, environmental groups and other public interest organizations working with companies to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. Ceres also coordinates the Investor Network on Climate Risk, an alliance of 50 institutional investors with about $3 trillion in assets. For more information on Ceres and the report, visit http://www.ceres.org
American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP is the nation’s largest generator of electricity, owning more than 36,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765-kilovolt extra-high-voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP’s utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). American Electric Power, based in Columbus, Ohio, is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2006.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Melissa McHenry
Manager, Corporate Media Relations
614/716-1120
Melissa McHenry
Manager, Corporate Media Relations
614/716-1120