22 May 2024 Shareholders Energized in Opposition to FirstEnergy’s Unproven Net Zero Plan

Washington, D.C. – At today’s annual FirstEnergy shareholder meeting, Scott Shepard, director of the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project (FEP), presents a proposal that criticizes the company for committing to energy goals such as net-zero emissions and the phase-out of all coal-fired power generation–without doing its due diligence to consider all research and possible outcomes.

Scott Shepard

Shepard will present Proposal 6, which requests that FirstEnergy’s board issue an audited report assessing how applying the findings of the Energy Policy Research Foundation (EPRF) and similar studies would affect the assumptions, costs, estimates and valuations underlying its financial statements.

FEP wrote in its supporting statement:

Many policymakers, investors and companies have converged on goals including the need to limit global temperature increase to 1.5° C and to reach net zero global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Net Zero 2050 Roadmap (NZE) offers a normative, not scientific, energy sector path for net zero GHG emissions. The IEA urges no investment in new fossil supply projects to achieve net zero. As a share of total energy supply, [fossil fuels] fall from 80% in 2020 to just over 20% in 2050.

“In line with such assumptions, FirstEnergy aims to reach net-zero by 2050 with an interim goal to reduce GHG emissions by 30% by 2030,” said Shepard. “The Company has also been investing in solar energy sites while closing coal plants with a goal of phasing out all coal-fired power generation by 2050.

“A 2023 EPRF study found that net zero advocates have misconstrued the IEA’ s position on new oil and gas investment,” added Shepard. “The study found, ‘Oil and gas play irreplaceable roles in modern civilization that are not reproducible with low-carbon alternatives.’

“NZE advocates speak in terms of fossil fuels as stranded assets, but no consideration has been given to whether the true stranded assets might be the assets spent on expensive renewable energy options based on faulty assumptions,” concluded Shepard. “Should the EPRF’s study prove true, FirstEnergy stands to lose its renewable energy investments, plus the costs of reverting back to reliable energy sources such as coal.”

More information about this proposal, as well as other key votes, can be found in FEP’s mobile and web app, ProxyNavigator.

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