Partner Profile

Exelon Corporation
Location	Chicago, IL
Goal	Exelon Corporation pledges to reduce total U.S. GHG emissions by 8 percent from 2001 to 2008.
Environmental Web Site
Company Description Exelon Corporation is one of the nation's largest electric and gas energy companies with more than $15 billion in annual revenues. The company has one of the industry's largest portfolios of electricity generation capacity, with a nationwide reach and strong positions in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. Exelon distributes electricity to approximately 5.4 million customers in northern Illinois and southeastern Pennsylvania and gas to more than 480,000 customers in the Philadelphia suburbs. Exelon is headquartered in Chicago and trades on the NYSE under the ticker EXC. "At Exelon, we accept that the science of global warming is overwhelming. We accept that limitations on greenhouse gases emissions will prove necessary. Until those limitations are adopted, we believe that business should take voluntary action to begin the transition to a lower carbon future." - John W. Rowe, Chairman, President, and CEO
Reasons for Joining Climate Leaders Exelon believes that responsible greenhouse gas (GHG) management is an inherent component of good corporate governance. We recognize that in order to inform legislators, regulators, stakeholders and NGOs – as well as the public and our peers – on how this challenge could be addressed, we need to be reducing our climate footprint in a meaningful and public way. Thus, Exelon decided to renew our climate commitment by establishing a GHG reduction goal under the Climate Leaders program. We also have found that developing GHG emission reduction strategies often yields other benefits in terms of cost savings, operational efficiencies and reduction in other air emissions.
GHG Reductions Before Joining Climate Leaders Exelon, through our predecessor companies, has been actively involved in reducing GHG emissions since the mid-1990s as a way to demonstrate that business – and the power generation sector specifically - can begin the transition to a carbon-constrained future today. We have made and met commitments under the U.S. Climate Challenge Program; a voluntary partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy and individual electric companies designed to promote actions to reduce, avoid or sequester GHG emissions and achieve goals by the year 2000. We have continued our initial programs and through our involvement with Climate Leaders have augmented them with other cost-effective GHG emission reducing measures.
Approach to GHG Management Exelon established our GHG emission reduction goal with the Climate Leaders program in May 2005. In establishing our goal, we considered various emission reduction opportunities, including retiring several older fossil fuel-fired generation facilities, improving the efficiency at others, increasing use of renewable resources, and reducing leakage of SF6 and methane. The goal proposal included analysis of the cost-effectiveness of these reduction options as well as the reductions they would achieve and also included a review of the potential costs of purchasing GHG emission offsets. As is true for many companies, Exelon wanted the goal to be aggressive, while still being achievable and making good business sense. Exelon’s Climate Leaders commitment was approved by Exelon’s senior management and is consistent with our environmental strategy. To achieve our climate goal, we will pursue a portfolio of actions, including increased renewable generation and increased output from our landfill gas and hydroelectric facilities. In addition, we have already ceased operations at several of our older, less efficient fossil fuel plants. We have looked at our own usage of energy and undertaken internal energy and other process efficiency initiatives across our operations. We are engaged in several terrestrial carbon sequestration efforts. We will seek to invest in our own facilities first before investing in emission offsets, but we believe that offsets may provide a cost-effective means to achieve reduced GHG emissions to the atmosphere.

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