Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Progress Energy Inc., the owner of utilities in three U.S. Southeast states, said it would need to build about 12 nuclear units by 2050 to comply with the emissions limits called for in climate legislation in Congress.

A proposal by Democrats John Kerry of Massachusetts and Barbara Boxer of California would require an 83 percent reduction in emissions of so-called greenhouse gases tied to global warming by 2050. In June, the House passed a bill, introduced by Democrats Henry Waxman of California and Edward Markey of Massachusetts, containing the same target.

“If you just look at those carbon targets in Waxman-Markey or the Boxer bill, we would have to go a lot more than two nuclear plants in each system, maybe three times that,” Progress Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson said yesterday in an interview at an industry conference in Hollywood, Florida. “It’s the only way to drive carbon to 80 percent below current usage level by 2050.”

Raleigh, North Carolina-based Progress is planning four nuclear units -- two in Levy County, Florida, scheduled to start producing power in 2018 and 2019, and two in North Carolina, slated for completion in 2019 and 2020.

Progress is in talks with a prospective partner about investment in generating or purchasing power from biomass, Johnson said. The company already has contracts to buy output from biomass plants in Florida and is interested in having its own plant with capacity of about 75 megawatts, he said.

“We’re looking closely at opportunities where we could be at that business,” Johnson said. “We have renewable energy mandates in North Carolina, and this is one of the renewables that we have access to because we do have a lot of farm litter and forest litter and wood chips, so it’s a combination of renewable requirements and the fuel source that we have.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Katarzyna Klimasinska in Hollywood, Florida at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 3, 2009 08:23 EST