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Duke University has delayed a decision on whether to build a power plant on campus after heavy criticism of the proposal and a recent report issued by a subcommittee of the Campus Sustainability Committee led by Tim Profeta, director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, provided in-depth evaluation of the construction of the proposed plant. After receiving it, Duke indicated it would not bring the proposal to the Board of Trustees in May, and that deliberations will continue into later semesters.

Duke University has delayed a vote by its trustees on a $55 million combined heat-and-power plant that Duke Energy has proposed building on the campus. “Given the complexity of these issues, we will not be bringing a proposal forward for approval by the Board of Trustees in May,” Tallman Trask, executive vice president of the university, said in a prepared release. The Campus Sustainability Committee proposed a special subcommittee of Duke faculty, staff and students to investigate the issues regarding the plant. The study, led by Tim Profeta of Duke's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, was published Tuesday. 

For a university that has always been protective of its global reputation, contributing to global greenhouse gases through a natural gas plant is no way to burnish that image. That’s one of the conclusions of a Duke University Campus Sustainability Subcommittee, which released a report on a proposed combined heat-and- power natural gas plant. As a result, Duke Executive  Vice President Tallman Trask announced that the board of trustees won’t vote as scheduled on a new $55 million, 21-megawatt combined heat and power natural gas plant on campus. Trask issued the statement after receiving a 37-page report from a university subcommittee charged with evaluating the pros and cons of the project and led by Nicholas Institute director Tim Profeta.

The subcommittee of the Campus Sustainability Committee that was charged with studying the feasibility of building a combined heat and power (CHP) plant on campus submitted its report to university administrators Monday. The subcommittee, composed of faculty, students and staff, and led by Tim Profeta, the director of Duke's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, has been working since December to review various aspects of the proposed project. “We will carefully review the report, and the associated appendices, as we continue to assess the options for meeting Duke University’s need for energy security," said Executive Vice President Tallman Trask. "Given the complexity of these issues, we will not be bringing a proposal forward for approval by the Board of Trustees in May."

New York Times op-ed on carbon tax mentions a paper co-authored by the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions' Brian Murray on British Columbia's carbon tax. Introduced in 2008, it started low, as it had at other places, so that people could shift their energy practices, and then increased yearly. The paper found that the tax worked; emissions in British Columbia dropped more than three times as much as in the rest of Canada. And economic growth was not affected. 

A power plant proposed by Duke Energy for Duke University could be fueled from methane captured from hog waste, not natural gas. “Duke University is committed to the investment necessary to utilize a percentage of biogas in the [plant] from day one of operation,” reads a fact sheet distributed at a community meeting last week on Duke’s campus in Durham, North Carolina. The statement is one of several that’s garnered consensus from a select panel analyzing the 21-megawatt combined heat and power (CHP) plant. Tim Profeta, director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, comments in Southeast Energy News.

Robert Bonnie, a Nicholas School of the Environment alumnus and former Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, returns to Duke as a Rubenstein Fellow to address issues related to climate change and natural resource conservation in rural America. Bonnie is the fifth expert to join Duke’s Rubenstein Fellows Academy, which brings leaders with deep expertise in issues of global importance to campus each year for in-depth engagement with students and faculty.  His 12-month term begins April 3. As a Rubenstein Fellow, Bonnie will work with students, staff and faculty in the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, the Nicholas School and the Sanford School of Public Policy to develop strategies to tackle conservation challenges for rural America that rely on collaboration and incentives to address environmental issues while providing economic opportunity. Bonnie will also share his experiences in environmental policymaking with students through seminars and career advising sessions.

Duke alum Sergio Castillo leads Eco BCG, which offers technology solutions for industrial customers in energy efficiency and water treatment. Castillo, a native of Panama, speaks about his experience in Duke Environmental Leadership Master of Environmental Management (DEL-MEM) program at the Nicholas School, where he not only got the education he needed in environmental policy and other intricacies of the field but also developed invaluable professional relationships. This article features how Castillo's DEL-MEM classmate Page Gravely, now the vice president of global business development for Eco BCG, came to collaborate with Castillo to grow their business. The article also features Matthew Burks, another 2013 DEL-MEM graduate who serves in an advisory role for Eco BCG, and Jesse Howley, a 2013 DEL-MEM graduate who has been consulting with Castillo's company. Read more about how Castillo's Duke education and connections helped expand his company. 

Duke alum Donnel Baird (T'03) was featured in Crain's New York Business's "40 under 40" in 2017 for his work through his start-up BlocPower. As the founder and CEO, Donnel works with the government and nonprofits to retrofit homes and schools in underserved communities to lower heating and power costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

For two decades now, Triangle Business Journal (TBJ) has honored female business executives at its annual Women in Business Awards event. Each year, we recognize 25 women who have not only gone above and beyond the responsibilities of their daily work, but have made a lasting impact on the community at large. TBJ also honors a female exec who has achieved that level of success and impact over a broad swath of time: they call it the Lifetime Achievement Award. This year's recipient is Hilda Pinnix-Ragland (MBA'86), a longtime utility executive (including positions at Progress Energy and Duke Energy) who has blazed a trail for women and for African-Americans in both the corporate setting and the civic arena.