Posted on 01/30/2020 8:23:29 AM PST by karpov
Hours after Microsoft Corp. pledged to eliminate its carbon emissions within a decade earlier this month, the company was forced to fire up fossil fuel generators to power its corporate campus in Fargo, N.D.
The software giant ran the diesel-burning machines for about five hours to keep the lights and heat on for 1,600 employees. It is one of about 100 big companies in the Fargo region ordered to do so by the local electric cooperative, which faced high demand for power. Microsoft receives a significant discount on its electricity rates in exchange for using backup power a few times a year.
The discharges were tiny relative to Microsoft’s ambitious climate goals, which include switching to 100% renewable energy in five years and eliminating by 2050 all the greenhouse-gas emissions it has produced since its founding in 1975. But they demonstrate a larger point: Corporations face a monumental challenge in living up to their climate pledges if they are reliant on other companies for energy.
Lucas Joppa, Microsoft’s chief environmental officer, said he is confident the company can meet its goals but understands it will be difficult. He expects stumbles along the way.
“No one should have their head in the sand” about the difficulty of the energy transformation for the global economy, Mr. Joppa said. Microsoft, he added, was “investing heavily in alternative backup options” that will allow it to get rid of its diesel generators.
A growing number of companies are committing to cut emissions from everything from the electricity they use to fuel burned during employees’ commutes. Last week, Johnson & Johnson said it would target a 20% reduction in carbon emissions by the end of 2020. British supermarket chain J. Sainsbury PLC recently pledged to reduce its direct emissions substantially by 2040
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
I hate to break it to ya, but it’s public domain now................
Who the freak would have an electric car in Fargo ND. Must be someone with a death wish.
We are carbon based life forms as is most everything on this and other planets.
Microsoft execs are lying plain and simple.
Must be a tax dodge at our expense.
Gov’t will tax us more so companies like microsoft get lower taxes.
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