” … the limited assurance of these public accountant’s sustainability letters provides, in certain respects, even less assurance than detailed agreed-upon procedure letters…. [T]he limited assurance letters in these sustainability reports contain very little detailed information and only reach vague, double-negative conclusions regarding the findings.”
– Michael Kraten, “Sustainability Reports and the Limitations of ‘Limited’ Assurance.” The CPA Journal (July 2019).
A recent feature for The CPA Journal (July 2019) unmasks the most politicized area of modern accounting, sustainability accounting. [1]
Following are excerpts from an essay by Michael Kraten (PhD, CPA, CSVP; professor of accounting and chair of the accounting, finance, and economics department at Houston Baptist University), “Sustainability Reports and the Limitations of ‘Limited’ Assurance.”
[Editor note: The author, a longtime critic of activist government climate policy, takes on a recent climate plan by the City of Houston. His open letter to Lara Cottingham, Houston Chief Sustainability Officer, City of Houston, follows.]
“Explain how 8 per cent wind and solar will replace 62 per cent reliable energy 24/7. Texas winds may be a bit more steady, but during heat spells, wind activity … falls just when it is needed the most.”
” A logical conclusion is that the city and staff may have an agenda for wishing to ration energy in the city not related to temperature or climate change, or perhaps that they are uninformed of these climate/energy facts.
Houston City government and staff have arbitrarily decided to pledge, figuratively speaking, allegiance to U.N.…
Continue Reading“Demands to significantly increase the Company’s renewable procurement ignore this reality [of system instability] largely because Georgia Power, and not the Intervenors, is ultimately responsible for safely and reliably integrating these resources into and operating the system.”
– Georgia Power Company, June 24, 2019
Georgia Power didn’t need any new sources of generation and was, in fact, closing down still-useful plants to make room for the Plant Vogtle #3 and #4 (2,231 MWnuclear capacity). As such, the Company didn’t want nuisance solar. However, to appease the Georgia Public Service Commissioner (GPSC) commissioners, and to engage in greenwashing, the Company proposed in its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) to purchase just enough intermittent solar to be politically acceptable. They were wrong.
Solaring Up … and Up
In the face of opposition, the Company compromised in a proposed settlement to increase future solar purchases.…
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