Entergy CEO: Climate Change Top Issue For Industry

CHUCK BARTELS

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Entergy Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive J. Wayne Leonard told shareholders Friday that climate change is the biggest issue the energy industry has ever faced, and that producers and policymakers have to come to agreement on affordable solutions.

Speaking at the New Orleans-based utility's annual meeting in Little Rock, Leonard said wind energy and other proposed alternatives are too expensive to be practical as replacements for coal and natural gas for generating electricity.

"We all would like to get to a place where we're not burning fossil fuels," Leonard said. "We're not going to get there in our lifetimes."

He said U.S. utility customers want the nation to achieve energy independence, yet they want inexpensive energy that doesn't harm the environment. Even meeting that ideal would not solve the problem of greenhouse gases, considering the massive growth in China and a similar boom that may follow in India, he said.

"We don't control our own destiny in this," Leonard said.

Even if the U.S. subsidizes alternative energy solutions and brings down its own emissions, the country still needs to present an affordable way of achieving the same goal if it wants China and other nations to get on board, Leonard said.