WESTBOROUGH, MASS., Nov. 29, 2007 – International energy delivery company National Grid (LSE: NG. NYSE: NGG) today welcomed the publication of an independent report published by McKinsey & Company on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and called for more to be done to reduce emissions and tackle climate change.
National Grid co-sponsored and provided valuable input into the report called “Reducing US Greenhouse Gases: How Much at What Cost?”. It is the result of a comprehensive year-long analysis by McKinsey on the opportunities and costs across the U.S. economy to substantially reduce GHG by 2030.
Steve Holliday, National Grid Chief Executive, said, “We are pleased to have sponsored this important and thorough analysis. It is vital that corporations and policymakers immediately start working together to tackle the challenge of global warming. Doing nothing is no longer an option - greenhouse gas emissions will continue to rise, resulting in more damage to the environment and even greater costs when we inevitably come to address the problem. We believe energy efficiency programs are the best way to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions.”
The report gives business leaders and policy makers the first comprehensive framework for prioritizing the most cost effective options to cut greenhouse gas emissions. By covering the main GHG emitting sectors, this report gives decision makers the information they need to craft cost effective policy initiatives.
The analysis suggests that the U.S. can substantially cut emissions at a manageable cost to the economy and that energy efficiency has an important part to play. Many efficiency options will pay for themselves, significantly reducing CO2 emissions at no cost to the economy.
Holliday added, “National Grid is playing its part. We are committed to cut our own emissions by 60% by 2050 – a target beyond what is required by the Kyoto protocol and we call on other companies to do the same. We still need to do more, but over the last 20 years, National Grid’s energy efficiency programs have reduced emissions by 14.5 million tons and saved our customers $2.5 billion. In New England alone, our programs made emissions savings equivalent to taking 1.8 million cars off the road.”
National Grid recently marked the 20th anniversary of its U.S. energy efficiency programs which have resulted in savings of more than 26 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in New England. The company believes even greater savings can be achieved through a key area of regulatory reform, namely decoupling, whereby a utility’s earnings are disassociated (or decoupled) from how much energy is sold to consumers. This would provide direct impact on energy efficiency as it would remove regulatory and financial disincentives to reduce rather than increase energy demand, while enhancing focus on meeting their customers’ energy and reliability needs.
The report will be available on November 29th at http://www.mckinsey.com. The report was produced in association with National Grid, DTE Energy, Environmental Defense, Honeywell, Natural Resources Defense Council, PG&E, and Shell.
National Grid delivers electricity to approximately 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island, and manages the electricity network on Long Island under an agreement with the Long Island Power Authority. National Grid is the largest power producer in New York State, owning 6,650 megawatts of electricity generation that provides power to over one million LIPA customers and supplies roughly a quarter of New York City’s electricity needs. It is also the largest distributor of natural gas in the northeastern U.S., serving approximately 3.4 million customers in New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.