November 9, 2024 - Duke Energy, a wide-reaching utility company serving parts of the Carolinas, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, is reportedly considering extending the life of its coal plants under a new Trump administration with power plant pollution rules under risk. 

Chief Financial Officer Brian Savoy told Bloomberg on Thursday that the utility company may adjust the pace at which it transitions to clean energy if President-elect Donald Trump walks back strict pollution rules issued by the Environmental Protection Agency this year. 

Duke Energy is considering pursuing dual conversions by converting some coal-fired facilities in Indiana to also run on natural gas. But the utility may simply keep those plants “solely coal-burning.” 

“The pace of the energy transition could change,” Savoy told the outlet. 

Throughout his campaign, Trump vowed to end what he described as an “anti-American energy crusade,” promising to repeal the EPA’s controversial power plant pollution rule issued earlier this year. 

In August, the former president said the rule was a “disaster” for the country, accusing it of shutting down power plants across the United States. 

Former Trump administration Interior Secretary David Bernhardt also hinted that a new Trump administration would see a swift repeal of the EPA rule, telling reporters that the Republican would “rescind every one of Joe Biden’s industry-killing, job-killing, pro-China and anti-American electricity regulations.”

The rule in question took effect on July 8, targeting carbon pollution from power plants for the purpose of limiting greenhouse gas emissions. The rule, which has been contested by dozens of Republican-led states, orders existing coal plants and new natural gas-fired plants to reduce their emissions by 2032 by implementing carbon capture and storage technologies. 

Despite the challenges in court, the Supreme Court declined to block the rule in October, allowing the regulation to remain in place for the time being. 

News of the possible change for coal comes around a month after Duke Energy announced it would be delaying the retirement of its coal-powered plant in Gibson County, Indiana, by three years. The move appeared to clash with the utility’s plans to go coal-free by 2035 and have around 60% of its generating capacity be renewable by 2040. 

But current EPA rules allow existing plants to co-fire coal and natural gas as part of their transition to cleaner energy — a path Duke Energy plans to take.

Duke Energy Indiana spokeswoman Angeline Protogere told PBS affiliate WFYI in October that it plans to rely on power sources such as coal and natural gas as they are not so heavily weather-dependent and can ensure the company can meet regional grid operator reliability requirements for storing extra energy.

“Because of that we have to plan resources that can be dispatched on demand whatever the weather conditions are,” Protogere said. “Renewables depend on the weather more.”