Duke's Not So Green Plan
dhend...@renaissanceamerican.com
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Duke 2024
“The surge in drug-resistant infections is one of the world’s most ominous health threats, and public health authorities say one of the biggest causes is farmers who dose millions of pigs, cows and chickens to keep them healthy [in overcrowded conditions].” Front page, New York Times, August 4, 2019
Duke is basing its plan to make the campus carbon-neutral by 2024 on the use of “biogas” which is the methane produced by the 2000+ industrial pig farms in North Carolina. What’s wrong with this picture?
In April of this year, Duke published its “Climate Action Plan Update” detailing the efforts the university has made and how it plans to pursue the goal of the campus being carbon neutral by 2024. The accomplishments in reducing the carbon footprint to date and plans going forward are remarkable, even exciting. The document is extremely well written, and with many contributors the editing is remarkable, producing a completely lucid document.
Sadly, as is so often the case with Duke, hanging over the project like a dark, toxic cloud is the tradecraft of an Administration and Board of Trustees who are either knowingly complicit with major industrial polluters or blinded by an ideology that makes them ignorant of the larger political reality the entire Duke Community faces:
“Duke’s leadership recognizes that making its campus climate neutral will not even register a minor change in global greenhouse gas emissions. However, this institution, with its focus on innovation, public service and global connections, is uniquely situated to be an example of climate leadership and instill this ethic in all students.” P. 3
Yes, one would not want to step off the campus in fear of stepping on some contributor’s toes.
Then there is the issue of Duke Energy, one of the world’s worst polluters. Think toxic fumes in the air and coal ash in the rivers. A former faculty member who is closely acquainted with the Duke Endowment and the University Endowment says, “Duke Energy built the university.”
The effort to make the Duke campus carbon neutral is at best a sham, and at worst a public relations gimmick by Duke Energy if the university is paying for the project with income from Duke Energy. Just how much stock in DE do the University and Duke endowments own?
DE’s website identifying institutional investors does not include any endowments, only investment management companies with such Wall Street luminaries as Vanguard (58.8 million shares), Black Rock (37.59 million), and State Street (36.5 millikon) at the top of the list, owning between them 18% of the stock. Noticeably missing from the list is The Carlyle Group. Perhaps our Mr. Rubenstein does not approve of Duke Energy?
Again it is typical of Duke to try to whitewash its dirty, dirty laundry, here in defense of Duke Energy:
“Since 2007, Duke Energy has reduced its emissions per megawatt-hour by 36% by changing its fuel mix. From 2005 to 2017 the percent of coal-fired generation decreased and was replaced by expansions of expansions of natural gas-fired generation and renewable energy. Duke Energy plans to invest $11 billion in continued expansion of natural gas fired generation and renewable energy in the future.” P. 15
If methane emissions are compared in a coal-fired plant to a gas-fired plant of equal megawatt production, the gas plant is cleaner, but if methane emissions from natural gas production and transportation are included, there is no advantage to burning gas to produce electricity. Restrictions on methane emissions in the natural gas industry is an on-going struggle by environmentalists who are not getting any help from the likes of Duke, University or Energy.
This is not a demand for divestment of Duke Energy. If the Duke Community doesn’t own it, somebody else, one of those Wall Street funds, will happily enjoy the income. This is a demand that Duke University build a shareholder movement to make Duke Energy carbon neutral. Can’t happen by 2024, but a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
On transportation the document is equally disingenuous:
“Enhance public transit access and continue to advocate for local transit options that meet the needs of the university and its students and employees.” P.5
Oops. Did somebody forget to tell the authors about that light rail fiasco? You will notice that Duke is committed to meeting the needs of “the university and its students and employees.” Once again, the larger community be damned?
One would think from reading this document that nobody in the Duke Administration or Board of Trustees has any political influence, clout, or even a clue about how North Carolina politics works:
“Based on current N.C. regulations, Duke University is only allowed to develop and utilize 1MW of net-metered solar electricity per account on campus – any additional capacity must be sold back to Duke Energy at a loss….. Duke University has advocated that Duke Energy support increasing these limits.” P. 18
Advocated? Being a humble supplicant in the face of a marauding corporation is not going to win the day.
“Due to N.C. law, electricity can only be sold by investor-owned utilities (e.g. Duke Energy) and electric membership corporations (EMCs). This limits the ability for Duke University to enter into Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) for off-site renewable energy generation.” P. 19
This is Political Science 101. Do we still have a Political Science department that can educate the Administration and Board? What entity writes energy and environmental law in North Carolina? Hint: it’s got the first letters D and E in its name. The Environmental Defense Fund? Wrong. You fail. You will now be replaced by somebody who is environmentally literate.
“[Duke will] continue to advocate for regulatory and policy changes in N.C. that would allow Duke University greater freedom over campus energy options [and will] seek collaborations with other similarly situated institutions to further amplify efforts.”
There is a tactic on Wall Street called a “bear hug”. A bear hug happens when an investor or a group of investors control enough stock in a corporation to change the Board of Directors and hire a new CEO. Seeking collaboration with other DE stockholders will be a lot more effective than seeking collaboration with other academic institutions, most of which are as poliltically feckless as Duke. It is entirely possible that between the two Duke Endowments, Duke owns enough stock in Duke Energy to make a few phone calls to other investor groups and control enough of the stock to put in place a Board and CEO who will lead Duke Energy to a clean and more profitable future. If Democrats take over D.C. next year, a carbon tax is likely to follow, making fossil fuel burning a lot more expensive.
Far and away the most egregious part of this plan is Duke’s endorsement of industrial pig production:
“As described in this document, a considerable portion of Duke University’s strategy for meeting its climate neutrality goals and energy needs involves biogas and renewable natural gas derived from biogas.” P.25
Biogas is methane produced by swine excrement on the 2000+ industrial pig farms in North Carolina. The document pays lip service to the some of the political/environmental casualties of the industrial pig industry:
“…Comprehensive waste management … has been elusive in North Carolina for nearly three decades, leaving some neighbors disproportionately affected by the more negative aspects of large-scale pork production, such as increased odors at property lines, release of pathogens, ammonia emissions, and heightened nutrient loading to fields and watersheds. Because the majority of farms are located in eastern North Carolina, which is one of the poorest regions of the state, the negative effects associated with waste management are often borne by those who live below the poverty line, who in turn are disproportionately made up of communities of color.” P. 28
Whew. We almost got close enough to that issue to smell it. But, Hey, it’s far enough away from West Durham that we don’t have to worry about it. So, let’s not discuss it further.
And they didn’t.
Duke’s solution:
“Duke weighed the potential social, environmental, and economic benefits and impacts of swine biogas offsets and waste-to-energy projects. After careful consideration, it determined that trying to move a complicated issue forward was better than turning away from a problem because it will be difficult. Based on this careful assessment and believing that limiting emissions from swine lagoons could eventually lead to comprehensive waste management, Duke University robustly pursued biogas capture at farms.” P. 26
So they built a demonstration project:
“A good example of … multiple benefits at work can be found at the Loyd Ray Farms, where Duke University partnered with Duke Energy and a Yadkin County swine farmer to build the first swine waste-to-energy system in the state to produce electricity from biogas and generate carbon offsets. The electricity generated by the microturbine at Loyd Ray Farms powers pollution control equipment additional to the anaerobic digester, making it possible for the farm to significantly reduce ammonia, nutrients, pathogens and odors (plus prevent wastewater discharge to surface and groundwater).” P. 28
He stuck in his thumb and pulled out a plum and said what a good boy am I. North Carolina is the third-largest producer of biogas in the country. The document conveniently ignores the scale necessary to bring off the laudable goal of curtailing all the pollution coming from industrial pig production. Who is going to pay for it and for the pipelines necessary to transport the gas? And since Duke is officially powerless in the face of a state government that refuses to protect the environment and its citizens from industrial pollution, the neighbors of these Hellholes wait patiently on stem cell research for somebody in the Duke administration to grow enough spine to stand up for them.
Finally, there are the pigs themselves. Begging the question of the horrifying treatment these relatively intelligent animals suffer in these pig factories, did nobody in the Duke Medical Center vet this document before it was unleashed on the public? Is nobody involved aware of the growing public health menace of drug-resistant bacteria caused by the overuse of anti-biotics in industrial meat production? Can anybody in the administration say, “infectious diseases”? Is this a case of institutionalized stupidity or is the Administration so enthralled with grants from Big Pharma that it refuses to take on an industry that may be creating a public health disaster that would make the opioid epidemic look like a hiccup?
It is unconscionable for Duke to pretend to be imparting a sense of environmental responsibility and protection to its students while, without any criticism, embracing an industry as vile in its pollution as industrial pig production. Drug-resistant bacteria have not reached a crisis point. Yet. But how can an institution, a major part of which is dedicated to curing and preventing disease support, without criticism, an industry that may well be producing a real pandemic?
Shame on the Board, but ultimately the President of the University is responsible for the political position taken on this issue, and even more than in the light-rail fiasco – there can be no disagreement that drug-resistant bacteria are bad things -- he has embarrassed all of us. How long must this go on?
The next step: Write to sustain...@duke.edu and ask them, “How much stock in Duke Energy do the Duke and University Endowments own?”
https://sustainability.duke.edu/sites/default/files/2019capupdate.pdf
Tom Campbell
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