Wyoming

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To get to zero by 2050, Wyoming must cut emissions by 3.7% a year

Emissions in Wyoming

Million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2)  equivalent (MTCO2e ) emissions

Note: Grey area indicates missing data due to processing delays.
Source: WRI, Mar 2021

This is how we're going to do it

Wyoming's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 44%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 9%🏠 Buildings: 2%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 44%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 9%🏠 Buildings: 2%

    2% of Wyoming's climate pollution comes from buildings.

    We burn fossil fuels to heat our air, water, and food.

    To cut this pollution...

    Let's electrify our heat!

    We'll replace...

    • Boilers and furnaces with heat pumps 
    • Gas stoves with electric induction stoves 

    ...in all of Wyoming's 387,000 buildings.

    In fact, 29.9% of appliances in buildings in Wyoming are already fossil fuel free!

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 271,000 dirty buildings in Wyoming. That's around 10,000 per year.

    Percent of Appliances Electrified electrifiedA chart showing the share of Appliances Electrified that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.29.91% have been electrified, and the remaining 70.09% are fossil fuel based.Appliances Electrified: 29.9%Needed This Year: 2.6%Not Yet: 67.5%Source: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 2% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 44%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 9%🏠 Buildings: 2%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 44%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 9%🏠 Buildings: 2%

    9% of Wyoming's pollution comes from cars, trucks, trains, and planes.

    But mostly from cars.

    To cut this pollution,

    your next car must be electric.

    Or consider going car-free with public transit, bikes/e-bikes, car share, or other alternatives!

    There are 191,000 vehicles in Wyoming and 330 are already electric (0.2% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 191,000 gas-powered vehicles. That's around 7,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles Electrified electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles Electrified that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.0.2% have been electrified, and the remaining 99.8% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles Electrified: 0.2%Needed This Year: 3.7%Not Yet: 96.1%Source: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 9% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 44%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 9%🏠 Buildings: 2%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 44%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 9%🏠 Buildings: 2%

    45% of Wyoming's pollution comes from burning coal, gas, and oil to make power.

    Dirty power plant

    To cut this pollution...

    Put solar panels on your roof!

    Then, we'll replace all fossil fuel power plants with solar and wind farms.

    We need to replace dirty power plants with clean ones (mostly wind and solar)

    ...and find good jobs for those workers.

    Current Fossil Fuel Power Plants in Wyoming

    12 coal plants

    Name: Jim Bridger County: Sweetwater Megawatt Capacity: 2,442 Utility: PacifiCorp

    Jim Bridger
    Sweetwater County
    2,442 MW

    Name: Laramie River County: Platte Megawatt Capacity: 1,710 Utility: Basin Electric Power Coop

    Laramie River
    Platte County
    1,710 MW

    Name: Dave Johnston County: Converse Megawatt Capacity: 922 Utility: PacifiCorp

    Dave Johnston
    Converse County
    922 MW

    Name: Naughton County: Lincoln Megawatt Capacity: 832 Utility: PacifiCorp

    Naughton
    Lincoln County
    832 MW

    Name: Dry Fork Station County: Campbell Megawatt Capacity: 484 Utility: Basin Electric Power Coop

    Dry Fork Station
    Campbell County
    484 MW

    Name: Wyodak County: Campbell Megawatt Capacity: 402 Utility: PacifiCorp

    Wyodak
    Campbell County
    402 MW

    Name: Neil Simpson II County: Campbell Megawatt Capacity: 130 Utility: Black Hills Power, Inc. d/b/a

    Neil Simpson II
    Campbell County
    130 MW

    Name: Wygen III County: Campbell Megawatt Capacity: 116 Utility: Black Hills Power, Inc. d/b/a

    Wygen III
    Campbell County
    116 MW

    Name: Wygen II County: Campbell Megawatt Capacity: 95 Utility: Black Hills Power, Inc. d/b/a

    Wygen II
    Campbell County
    95 MW

    Name: Wygen I County: Campbell Megawatt Capacity: 90 Utility: Black Hills Power, Inc. d/b/a

    Wygen I
    Campbell County
    90 MW

    Name: Genesis Alkali County: Sweetwater Megawatt Capacity: 41 Utility: Genesis Alkali, LLC

    Genesis Alkali
    Sweetwater County
    41 MW

    Name: General Chemical County: Sweetwater Megawatt Capacity: 30 Utility: Tata Chemicals Partners

    General Chemical
    Sweetwater County
    30 MW

    7 gas plants

    Name: Cheyenne Prairie Generating Station County: Laramie Megawatt Capacity: 220 Utility: Black Hills Service Company LLC

    Cheyenne Prairie Generating Station
    Laramie County
    220 MW

    Name: Neil Simpson II (CT2) County: Campbell Megawatt Capacity: 40 Utility: Black Hills Power, Inc. d/b/a

    Neil Simpson II (CT2)
    Campbell County
    40 MW

    Name: Hartzog County: Campbell Megawatt Capacity: 23 Utility: Basin Electric Power Coop

    Hartzog
    Campbell County
    23 MW

    Name: Arvada County: Sheridan Megawatt Capacity: 23 Utility: Basin Electric Power Coop

    Arvada
    Sheridan County
    23 MW

    Name: Barber Creek County: Campbell Megawatt Capacity: 23 Utility: Basin Electric Power Coop

    Barber Creek
    Campbell County
    23 MW

    Name: Big Sand Draw Plant County: Fremont Megawatt Capacity: 8 Utility: Devon Energy Production Co

    Big Sand Draw Plant
    Fremont County
    8 MW

    Name: Beaver Creek Gas Plant County: Fremont Megawatt Capacity: 6 Utility: Devon Energy Production Co

    Beaver Creek Gas Plant
    Fremont County
    6 MW

    2 oil plants

    Name: Lake (WY) County: Teton Megawatt Capacity: 3 Utility: NorthWestern Energy

    Lake (WY)
    Teton County
    3 MW

    Name: Old Faithful County: Teton Megawatt Capacity: 2 Utility: NorthWestern Energy

    Old Faithful
    Teton County
    2 MW

    Find the dirty plants near you

    Source: EPA, Jan 2021

    But wait!

    It's not enough to replace our power plants with wind and solar farms.

    To power our electric cars and buildings, we need two times the electricity we have today.

    In all, we'll need to build 2,000 megawatt (MW)  of wind power and 3,000 MW of solar power.

    Since the average wind turbine provides 2.75 MW of peak capacity, Wyoming would need to install about 788 turbines.

    Since Wyoming already has 964 MW of wind and 22 MW of solar, that's 1,000 MW of wind power we need to build and 3,000 MW of solar power. That's around 45 MW of wind power and 98 MW of solar power a year.

    Percent of MWs of Wind and Solar Built electrifiedA chart showing the share of MWs of Wind and Solar Built that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.23.5% have been electrified, and the remaining 76.5% are fossil fuel based.MWs of Wind and Solar Built: 23.5%Needed This Year: 2.8%Not Yet: 73.7%

    Source: EIA, Apr 2022

    Decarbonizing all dirty power cuts 45% of the pollution.

    And gives us zero-emissions power we need to eliminate pollution from buildings and cars!

    🏭 Other: 44%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 9%🏠 Buildings: 2%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 44%🔌 Power: 45%🚗 Transport: 9%🏠 Buildings: 2%

    The last 44% of Wyoming's climate pollution comes from other sources...

    This includes farming, landfills, industry, and leaks from gas pipelines.

    There's no one solution to solve these problems, but there are lots of great ideas:

    • No-till farming to keep CO2 in the soil
    • Capturing methane leaks from landfills
    • Capturing CO2 to make emissions-free concrete
    • Burning green hydrogen to make emissions-free steel
    • Plugging methane leaks from gas pipelines

    That doesn't mean there's no solution, it just means that clean electrification  doesn't help with these problems, and you could fill a whole book with covering all of them. We need to encourage our politicians to invest in researching new solutions and implementing existing solutions to these problems!

Ready to do your part?

Learn how to electrify your own machines and pass local policy to electrify the rest

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