Kentucky
Back to mapTo get to zero by 2050, Kentucky must cut climate pollution by 5.2 million metric tons of C02 equivalent a year.
Emissions in Kentucky
Million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) emissions
We can do it. Here's how.
- Regenerative agriculture to sequester carbon in soil
- Composting to reduce landfill methane emissions
- New techniques for manufacturing CO2 emitting materials, like concrete
🏠 Buildings
4% of emissions in Kentucky comes from buildings.
Mostly from different types of heating.
80% of the pollution of your typical home comes from heating your space, water, and food.
To stop this pollution, we need to replace our furnaces with electric heat pumps, electrify our water heaters, and cook with induction and electricity instead of gas.
There are 2.4 million buildings in Kentucky and 51% of building systems are already electrified.
We need to electrify the remaining 1.2 million buildings in Kentucky. That's around 43,000 per year.
That will solve 4% of the problem.
🚗 Getting Around
24% of emissions in Kentucky comes from cars, trucks, and planes.
Mostly from our cars.
To cut this pollution, if you have a car, your next one needs to be an electric vehicle (EV).
Or try going car-free with public transit, bikes/e-bikes, or walking if it works for you.
There are 1.6 million vehicles in Kentucky and 3,000 are already electric (0.2% of the total).
We need to electrify the remaining 1.6 million vehicles. That's around 59,000 a year.
That will solve another 24% of the problem.
🔌 Power Generation
44% of emissions in Kentucky comes from making power.
Specifically from coal, gas, and oil plants.
To cut this pollution, we need to replace all dirty power plants with clean ones (mostly wind and solar).
In Kentucky we need to close and replace:
13 coal plants
Paradise
Muhlenberg County
3,718 MW
Trimble County
Trimble County
2,594 MW
Ghent
Carroll County
2,226 MW
Shawnee
McCracken County
1,750 MW
E W Brown
Mercer County
1,748 MW
Mill Creek
Jefferson County
1,717 MW
H L Spurlock
Mason County
1,609 MW
East Bend
Boone County
772 MW
R D Green
Webster County
586 MW
D B Wilson
Ohio County
509 MW
Elmer Smith
Daviess County
445 MW
HMP and L Station 2
Henderson County
405 MW
John S. Cooper
Pulaski County
344 MW
11 gas plants
Smith Generating Facility
Clark County
1,663 MW
Cane Run
Jefferson County
1,468 MW
Riverside Generating Company
Lawrence County
1,150 MW
Big Sandy
Lawrence County
1,097 MW
Marshall County
Marshall County
688 MW
Bluegrass Generating Station
Oldham County
624 MW
Paddy's Run
Jefferson County
227 MW
Paducah Power Systems Plant 1
McCracken County
120 MW
Haefling
Fayette County
62 MW
DTE Calvert City, LLC
Marshall County
27 MW
Zorn
Jefferson County
18 MW
1 oil plant
Paris (KY)
Bourbon County
12 MW
...and help those workers find good jobs.
But wait! Remember how we electrified all cars and buildings?
Our machines don't pollute now, because they run on electricity!
But that means we need to make more power for those new electric machines - twice as much power as we make now!
And all of it needs to be clean power!
So to cut the climate pollution from our power, cars, and buildings we need to INSTALL 6,000 MWs of wind and 7,000 MWs of solar.
Since Kentucky already has 12 megawatts of solar power generation and 0 megawatts of wind power generation, that's 219 Megawatts of wind capacity AND 248 Megawatts of solar capacity a year we need to build.
That will solve another 44% of the problem.
🏭 Other Emissions
The last 28% of emissions in Kentucky comes other sources
This includes industry, landfills, and farming.
There's no one solution to solve these problems, but there are a lot of great ideas!
These include:
Learn how to electrify your own machines and pass local policy to electrify the rest
Take Action