Idaho
Back to mapTo get to zero by 2050, Idaho must cut climate pollution by
1.2 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent a year.
Emissions in Idaho
Million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) emissions
This is how we're going to do it.
- Boilers and furnaces with heat pumps
- Gas stoves with induction ranges
- 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
Decarbonize Our Buildings
10% of Idaho'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...
...in all of Idaho's 942,000 buildings.
In fact, 38% of buildings in Idaho are already fossil fuel free!
That means we only need to electrify the remaining 583,000 buildings in Idaho. That's around 21,000 per year.
That cuts 10% of the pollution.
Decarbonize Our Transport
32% of Idaho'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!
Then, we'll electrify all 588,000 cars and trucks in Idaho!
There are 588,000 vehicles in Idaho and 2,000 are already electric (0.4% of the total).
We need to electrify the remaining 586,000 vehicles. That's around 21,000 a year.
That cuts 32% of the pollution.
Decarbonize Our Power
4% of Idaho's pollution comes from burning coal, gas, and oil to make power.
To cut this pollution...
Put solar panels on your roof!
Then, we'll replace all fossil fuel power plants with solar and wind farms.
...and find good jobs for those workers.
Current Fossil Fuel Power Plants in Idaho
8 gas plants
Bennett Mountain Power Project
Elmore County
393 MW
Langley Gulch Power Plant
Payette County
319 MW
Rathdrum Power, LLC
Kootenai County
302 MW
Evander Andrews Power Complex
Elmore County
271 MW
Rathdrum Combustion Turbine Project
Kootenai County
166 MW
Amalgamated Sugar Twin Falls
Twin Falls County
10 MW
Amalgamated Sugar LLC Nampa
Canyon County
9 MW
BYUI Central Energy Facility
Madison County
6 MW
1 oil plant
Salmon Diesel
Lemhi County
5 MW
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 2x the electricity we have today!
In all, we'll need to build 2,000 MWs of wind and 1,000 MWs of solar.
Since Idaho already has 78 megawatts of solar power generation and 303 megawatts of wind power generation, that's 48 Megawatts of wind capacity AND 47 Megawatts of solar capacity a year we need to build.
That cuts 4% of the pollution.
And gives us zero-emissions power we need to eliminate pollution from buildings and cars!
Other Emissions
The last 54% of Idaho'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:
Ready to do your part?
Learn how to electrify your own machines and pass local policy to electrify the rest
Take Action