Duke Energy CEO: Coal not going away

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--The chief executive of Duke Energy, James Rogers, is an unlikely advocate for policies to restrict greenhouse gas emissions. But the man who is building two new coal power plants is just that.
Rogers delivered a keynote speech at the MIT Energy Conference here on Saturday where he called for policies and technologies to bridge the fossil fuel-based energy industry of today with low-carbon alternatives.
Rogers heads a company that generates 90 percent of its electricity from burning coal or nuclear power to serve its 4 million customers. So it's not surprising that he says that "coal is not a four-letter word."
But even with his company's marriage to fossil fuels, the potential influence of Duke Energy and its like over the future of the energy industry is undeniable: Duke's capital budget to invest in technology and infrastructure is $5 billion this year.
Meanwhile, the total amount of venture capital that went into clean tech start-ups last year was in the range of $3 billion to $4 billion.
Rogers is one of several industry CEOs calling for regulations that put a price on polluting carbon dioxide and Duke Energy is a member of U.S. CAP (United States Climate Action Partnership), a consortium of large corporations trying to influence policy.

Resource:Cnet