Louisiana

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

Emissions in Louisiana

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

Louisiana's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 64%🔌 Power: 14%🚗 Transport: 20%🏠 Buildings: 2%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 64%🔌 Power: 14%🚗 Transport: 20%🏠 Buildings: 2%

    2% of Louisiana'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 Louisiana's 2.2 million buildings.

    In fact, 59.1% of appliances in buildings in Louisiana are already fossil fuel free!

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 888,000 dirty buildings in Louisiana. That's around 33,000 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.59.15% have been electrified, and the remaining 40.85% are fossil fuel based.Appliances Electrified: 59.1%Needed This Year: 1.5%Not Yet: 39.3%Source: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 2% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 64%🔌 Power: 14%🚗 Transport: 20%🏠 Buildings: 2%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 64%🔌 Power: 14%🚗 Transport: 20%🏠 Buildings: 2%

    20% of Louisiana'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 1.3 million vehicles in Louisiana and 2,000 are already electric (0.1% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 1.3 million gas-powered vehicles. That's around 49,000 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.0.1% have been electrified, and the remaining 99.9% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles Electrified: 0.1%Needed This Year: 3.7%Not Yet: 96.2%Source: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 20% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 64%🔌 Power: 14%🚗 Transport: 20%🏠 Buildings: 2%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 64%🔌 Power: 14%🚗 Transport: 20%🏠 Buildings: 2%

    14% of Louisiana's pollution comes from burning coal, gas, and oil to make power.

    Dirty power plant

    That's because of how power is generated in Louisiana today.

    Power Generation in the State of Louisiana (2020)

    But there's already 19% carbon-free electricity generation in Louisiana!

    To clean up the emissions from the polluting power plants we need to 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 Louisiana

    3 coal plants

    Name: Big Cajun 2 County: Pointe Coupee Megawatt Capacity: 2,633 Utility: Louisiana Generating LLC

    Big Cajun 2
    Pointe Coupee County
    2,633 MW

    Name: Brame Energy Center County: Rapides Megawatt Capacity: 1,707 Utility: Cleco Power LLC

    Brame Energy Center
    Rapides County
    1,707 MW

    Name: Dolet Hills Power Station County: DeSoto Megawatt Capacity: 721 Utility: Cleco Power LLC

    Dolet Hills Power Station
    DeSoto County
    721 MW

    46 gas plants

    Name: Ninemile Point County: Jefferson Megawatt Capacity: 2,791 Utility: Entergy Louisiana LLC

    Ninemile Point
    Jefferson County
    2,791 MW

    Name: Acadia Power Station County: Acadia Megawatt Capacity: 1,389 Utility: Cleco Power LLC

    Acadia Power Station
    Acadia County
    1,389 MW

    Name: Little Gypsy County: St Charles Megawatt Capacity: 1,251 Utility: Entergy Louisiana LLC

    Little Gypsy
    St Charles County
    1,251 MW

    Name: St. Charles Power Station County: St Charles Megawatt Capacity: 1,000 Utility: Entergy Louisiana LLC

    St. Charles Power Station
    St Charles County
    1,000 MW

    ...and 42 more

    1 oil plant

    Name: Nelson Industrial Steam Company County: Calcasieu Megawatt Capacity: 1,597 Utility: Entergy Louisiana LLC

    Nelson Industrial Steam Company
    Calcasieu County
    1,597 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 5,000 megawatt (MW)  of wind power and 7,000 MW of solar power.

    Since the average wind turbine provides 2.75 MW of peak capacity, Louisiana would need to install about 2,000 turbines.

    Since Louisiana already has 0 MW of wind and 49 MW of solar, that's 5,000 MW of wind power we need to build and 7,000 MW of solar power. That's around 199 MW of wind power and 251 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.1% have been electrified, and the remaining 99% are fossil fuel based.MWs of Wind and Solar Built: 1.0%Needed This Year: 3.7%Not Yet: 95.3%

    Source: EIA, Apr 2022

    Decarbonizing all dirty power cuts 14% of the pollution.

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

    🏭 Other: 64%🔌 Power: 14%🚗 Transport: 20%🏠 Buildings: 2%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 64%🔌 Power: 14%🚗 Transport: 20%🏠 Buildings: 2%

    The last 64% of Louisiana'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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