Kentucky’s two largest cities and the parent company of its largest electric utility company each have set lofty goals to address the severe threats of climate change, seeking to reach net-zero carbon emissions in the coming years.
But environmental activists say the utility and local governments are now abandoning their greenhouse gas commitments in a proposed settlement before state regulators, in which the company seeks to build two more gas plants, extend the life of two coal plants and scrap a plan for a large battery storage facility — all part of Kentucky’s effort to attract and serve future data centers.
PPL Corporation, the parent company of Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities, announced its goal in 2021 to reduce its carbon emissions 70% from 2010 levels by 2035, then have an 80% reduction by 2040, and ultimately achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
Lexington’s city council unanimously voted in 2023 to set their own community-wide net-zero carbon emissions goal for 2050, with the city unveiling more detailed plans for how to meet that goal this June.
A non-binding resolution passed in 2020 by Louisville Metro Council was even more ambitious, seeking 100% clean energy across the city by 2040 — in addition to 100% clean electricity for city government operations by 2030 and 100% clean energy for its vehicle fleet and heating and cooling systems by 2023.
Former Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer signed an executive order shortly before leaving office in 2022 that put the 2040 net-zero goal in place, with his eventual successor — current Mayor Craig Greenberg — pledging during his campaign that he was “wholly committed” to meeting that goal.
Critics now say that both the local governments and LG&E/KU are essentially abandoning these net-zero goals to address climate change in a proposal that is currently before the Kentucky Public Service Commission.
LG&E/KU sought permission from the PSC in February to spend $3.7 billion to build two new 645 megawatt natural gas power plants in Louisville and Mercer County, in addition to upgrades to extend the life a coal-fired plant in Carroll County and the construction of a 400 megawatt sustainable battery storage facility in Louisville. The utility laid out a case that the extra power generation was needed to meet an upward spike in forecasted demand, mostly from the energy-guzzling data centers they expected to locate in Kentucky because of new tax incentives.
On July 31, LG&E/KU announced that they had reached a proposed settlement in this case with the Kentucky attorney general, the Kentucky Coal Association and other business groups. In the stipulation, they modified the request by seeking to extend the life of an additional coal unit at Louisville’s Mill Creek plant that was set to be retired in 2027, as well scrapping plans to build the battery storage facility.
While not directly entering into the settlement like the attorney general’s office, representatives of Louisville and Lexington’s city governments did sign the agreement — stating that they take no position on the stipulation, but also pledging they “will not oppose it at the hearing” of the case before the PSC.
At the three-day hearing at the Public Service Commission headquarters in early August, both local governments stayed true to their words, as attorneys for both attended and did not weigh in or question witnesses.
That did not sit well with some in the audience who gave public comments against the LG&E/KU plan at the onset of the hearing, who said their pledge to not oppose a massive increase in fossil fuel emissions for many years to come amounted to tacit approval.
“I am also disappointed in my Metro Government, I’ll tell you,” said Kimberly Crum of Louisville. “(Greenberg) is laying down for this, and I’m disappointed in him.”
Sarah Lynn Cunningham of the Louisville Climate Action Network put her disappointment with Greenberg in more stark terms, noting that the new gas plants will likely have a life span of 40 to 50 years and stiff-arm efforts to build up Kentucky’s renewable energy portfolio.
“That was a deal with the devil, and the mayor went along with it,” Cunningham said. “We’ve got a mayor who’s saying ‘Okay, fine, bring us more fossil fuel power plants.’”
Asked by Kentucky Public Radio on the day the settlement was announced if Louisville’s agreement not to oppose it contradicted the city’s own net-zero carbon emissions goals, Greenberg spokesman Kevin Trager initially said via email he would respond later that day. Trager has still not responded in the following six weeks, despite numerous follow-up requests for comment over that period.
‘I call B.S.’ LG&E/KU extending reliance on fossil fuels
Outside the Public Service Commission office in Frankfort on the first day of the August hearing, consumer and environmental activists blasted several aspects of the LG&E/KU settlement.
In addition to fears that current ratepayers would bear the burden of paying for the new plants if new data centers did not actually materialize in Kentucky — or wind up using significantly less energy than the utility’s staggering projections — they said the proposal would double down on greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come.
Sam Avery of the Renewable Energy Alliance of Louisville said LG&E/KU wanted to spend billions of dollars “to build an enormous new obsolete climate busting fossil fuel infrastructure that will keep you and your families dependent into the second half of this century on obsolete energy sources that will ruin the climate of this earth for all living beings who live on the earth.”
Cunningham of Louisville Climate Action Network focused on the utility’s recent pledge to nearly end fossil fuel emissions in 25 years, saying the proposed build out would render that impossible.
“PPL, that owns LG&E and KU, said a few years back, 'we're going to be net-zero, no more greenhouse gas emissions after 2050,’” Cunningham said. “I call B.S. That isn't gonna happen when they do stuff like this.”
The energy generation of LG&E/KU is currently dominated by coal, but reliance on natural gas is on the rise. Power plants burning natural gas release about half the amount of carbon dioxide as coal-fired plants, but they also release significant amounts of methane, a potent, though shorter-lived greenhouse gas.
As of today, 84% of the utility’s power comes from burning coal, followed by gas at 15% and renewable energy at 1%. However, those percentages are projected to shift in the next few years, thanks to a request approved by the PSC in late 2023.
Under that PSC decision, LG&E was allowed to retire two coal units, replacing them with a new gas plant at Mill Creek in Louisville and several new solar and battery storage facilities. LG&E actually wanted to go further, but the PSC denied its request to shut down two additional coal units and build an additional gas plant — the one it now wants to build in Mercer County.
At the time of the PSC decision, LG&E estimated when these projects were complete that their energy mix would shift to 64% coal, 29% natural gas and 7% renewable energy.
Despite that shift, such an energy mix would still be well short of what would be needed to become net-zero by 2050 — and that’s before the current LG&E proposal to build two new gas plants, extend the life of two coal plants and scrap a battery storage plan. The two new gas plants are projected to be completed by 2031 and could be operational past 2070.
In the August hearing, PSC chair Angie Hatton asked Lonnie Bellar, a top executive at PPL, if the settlement to extend the life of an additional coal plant and strike the battery storage facility would change its 2050 net-zero goals.
“It potentially could,” Bellar answered. “We've stated publicly with respect to those goals, we reassess those at the end of the year. Part of that reason is to understand what the approvals are in this proceeding.”
Bellar noted that part of the settlement was an agreement that LG&E/KU conduct a request for proposal (RFP) on a new renewable energy and storage project by mid-2026, and “if we find cost-effective resources as part of that, we’ll make a filing for their approval with the commission by the end of 2028.”
But just because an RFP is conducted does not mean a project will come to fruition. LG&E issued an RFP for renewable energy projects in 2024, but chose not to pursue any of the submitted proposals.
Ken Shapero of the Louisville Climate Action Network said this aspect of the settlement is not reassuring, calling it “some vague promise that down the road there’ll be competitive bids on sustainable energy.”
‘This is not an optional goal’ Locals decry city leaders
When asked by Louisville Public Media during his 2022 campaign if he intended to fulfill then-Mayor Fischer’s 2040 community-wide net-zero goal, current Louisville Mayor Greenberg said he was all in.
“This is not an optional goal and I am wholly committed to meeting it by 2040 or sooner if possible,” Greenberg said. “We must work together to make Louisville a safer and healthier city.”
He also said the science is clear that “our climate is rapidly changing and that change is being driven by human activity, most notably the burning of fossil fuels.”
“There is near universal consensus that the time has come to begin winding down the use of fossil fuels, build a sustainable future based on renewable energy, and prepare for extreme weather pattern changes before it is too late,” Greenberg said.
While Greenberg’s administration agreed not to oppose LG&E/KU’s settlement in the PSC hearing, other Louisville elected officials showed up to the hearing to express their opposition.
Metro Councilwoman Tammy Hawkins, who represents the West End district where a massive 525-megawatt data center has been proposed, told the PSC commissioners they should not let LG&E/KU build the new gas plants — citing both the possibility of increased utility bills and environmental harms.
“Our climate and health demands that we choose energy sources that do not rely on fossil fuels,” Hawkins said. “Energy efficiency, solar and battery storage are all cheaper, safer and more reliable than natural gas.”
Metro Councilwoman Betsy Ruhe also spoke against the LG&E/KU plan, saying that renewable energy is cheaper than burning fossil fuels — counting both customer utility bills and the added costs of dealing with the effects of climate change.
“You can add all those climate impacts on here that are additionally going to cost us money,” Ruhe said. “We have higher storms. I hope you like the weather the last month or so where we went outside in the morning and it's like 78 degrees day after day after day. This is not going to get better. It is going to get worse.”
Last week, Mayor Greenberg dropped a plan to buy renewable energy certificates from a future solar energy project in western Kentucky — part of its effort to meet the city’s 2030 goal of powering city government operations with 100% clean electricity. The measure did not gain enough support among members of Metro Council to pass.
Environmental activists based in Lexington have also criticized its local government leaders for agreeing not to oppose the LG&E/KU settlement terms.
“This settlement, which commits Lexington to decades more of expensive fossil-based electricity generation, and fails to reduce demand with cost-saving options such as intensified energy efficiency programs, represents an abandonment of Lexington's net zero commitment and the needs of Lexington rate payers for affordable energy,” said Catherine Clement, a Lexington resident and member of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, one of the groups intervening in the PSC case.
Spokespersons for Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton have not returned a request for comment.
In the August PSC hearing, Chairwoman Hatton questioned Bellar on how LG&E/KU weighs the climate goals of Louisville and Lexington when determining its operation plans. He answered that LG&E/KU offer green tariff programs where cities can pay into a renewable power agreement, but added that “you're correct in pointing out there's a natural tension there between the overall objective function that we operate off of and those individual goals.”
“And some states have green energy mandates,” Hatton added. “North Carolina has green energy mandates, but Kentucky doesn't. Maybe the opposite of that, in a lot of ways.”
“Correct,” Bellar answered. “We try to comply with all the directions of the legislature, the commission, and comply with all the environmental rules, and do that in the lowest reasonable cost.”
“So that sounds easy,” Hatton replied, sarcastically.
The Kentucky General Assembly is dominated by Republicans who are enthusiastic supporters of the state’s coal industry and skeptical of the importance or scientific reality of climate change. They recently passed legislation that makes it more difficult for utilities to retire coal plants.
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear says he believes in the threat of climate change, but rarely mentions it unprompted in his press conferences and speeches. He touts an all-of-the-above energy approach for Kentucky.
Beshear appoints the three commissioners of the PSC, but they must be confirmed by a vote of the GOP-led Senate — which has several times declined to do so.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
