Montana
Back to mapTo get to zero by 2050, Montana must cut climate pollution by 1.7 million metric tons of C02 equivalent a year.
Emissions in Montana
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
7% of emissions in Montana 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 773,000 buildings in Montana and 31% of building systems are already electrified.
We need to electrify the remaining 533,000 buildings in Montana. That's around 19,000 per year.
That will solve 7% of the problem.
🚗 Getting Around
17% of emissions in Montana 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 459,000 vehicles in Montana and 940 are already electric (0.2% of the total).
We need to electrify the remaining 458,000 vehicles. That's around 16,000 a year.
That will solve another 17% of the problem.
🔌 Power Generation
31% of emissions in Montana 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 Montana we need to close and replace:
5 coal plants
Colstrip
Rosebud County
2,363 MW
Hardin Generating Station
Big Horn County
116 MW
Lewis & Clark
Richland County
69 MW
Colstrip Energy LP
Rosebud County
46 MW
Western Sugar Cooperative - Billings
Yellowstone County
2 MW
6 gas plants
Dave Gates Generating Station
Deer Lodge County
203 MW
Culbertson Station
Roosevelt County
91 MW
Glendive Generating Station
Dawson County
84 MW
Basin Creek Plant
Silver Bow County
55 MW
Miles City GT
Custer County
23 MW
Sidney MT Plant
Richland County
4 MW
1 oil plant
Yellowstone Energy LP
Yellowstone County
68 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 2,000 MWs of wind and 1,000 MWs of solar.
Since Montana already has 9 megawatts of solar power generation and 322 megawatts of wind power generation, that's 44 Megawatts of wind capacity AND 52 Megawatts of solar capacity a year we need to build.
That will solve another 31% of the problem.
🏭 Other Emissions
The last 45% of emissions in Montana 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