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

Emissions in Mississippi

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


Mississippi's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 31%🔌 Power: 30%🚗 Transport: 35%🏠 Buildings: 4%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 31%🔌 Power: 30%🚗 Transport: 35%🏠 Buildings: 4%

    4% of Mississippi'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 Mississippi's 1.5 million buildings.

    In fact, 55% of appliances in buildings in Mississippi are already fossil fuel free!

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 672,000 dirty buildings in Mississippi. That's around 25,000 per year.

    Percent of Buildings electrifiedA chart showing the share of Buildings that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.55.42% have been electrified, and the remaining 44.58% are fossil fuel based.Buildings ElectrifiedNot yetSource: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 4% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 31%🔌 Power: 30%🚗 Transport: 35%🏠 Buildings: 4%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 31%🔌 Power: 30%🚗 Transport: 35%🏠 Buildings: 4%

    35% of Mississippi'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 788,000 vehicles in Mississippi and 780 are already electric (0.1% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 788,000 gas-powered vehicles. That's around 29,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles 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 ElectrifiedNot yetSource: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 35% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 31%🔌 Power: 30%🚗 Transport: 35%🏠 Buildings: 4%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 31%🔌 Power: 30%🚗 Transport: 35%🏠 Buildings: 4%

    30% of Mississippi'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 Mississippi

    1 coal plant

    Name: Red Hills Generation Facility
County: Choctaw
Megawatt Capacity: 514
Utility: Choctaw Generation L.P, L.L.L.P.

    Red Hills Generation Facility
    Choctaw County
    514 MW

    25 gas plants

    Name: Daniel Electric Generating Plant
County: Jackson
Megawatt Capacity: 2,229
Utility: Mississippi Power Co

    Daniel Electric Generating Plant
    Jackson County
    2,229 MW

    Name: Baxter Wilson
County: Warren
Megawatt Capacity: 1,328
Utility: Entergy Mississippi LLC

    Baxter Wilson
    Warren County
    1,328 MW

    Name: Watson Electric Generating Plant
County: Harrison
Megawatt Capacity: 1,216
Utility: Mississippi Power Co

    Watson Electric Generating Plant
    Harrison County
    1,216 MW

    Name: Batesville Generation Facility
County: Panola
Megawatt Capacity: 1,183
Utility: Cooperative Energy

    Batesville Generation Facility
    Panola County
    1,183 MW

    ...and 21 more

    2 oil plants

    Name: Kemper County
County: Kemper
Megawatt Capacity: 372
Utility: Tennessee Valley Authority

    Kemper County
    Kemper County
    372 MW

    Name: Meridian
County: Lauderdale
Megawatt Capacity: 9
Utility: Tennessee Valley Authority

    Meridian
    Lauderdale County
    9 MW

    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 4,000 megawatt (MW) [?] of wind power and 5,000 MW of solar power.

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

    Since Mississippi already has 0 MW of wind and 51 MW of solar, that's 4,000 MW of wind power we need to build and 5,000 MW of solar power. That's around 154 MW of wind power and 194 MW of solar power a year.

    Percent of needed Wind & Solar builtA chart showing the share of Solar and Wind capacity that has already been installed and rest to be installed. We are 1% of the way to what we need to be carbon neutral by 2050.MWs of Wind & Solar Built

    Source: EIA, Apr 2022

    Decarbonizing all dirty power cuts 30% of the pollution.

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

    🏭 Other: 31%🔌 Power: 30%🚗 Transport: 35%🏠 Buildings: 4%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 31%🔌 Power: 30%🚗 Transport: 35%🏠 Buildings: 4%

    The last 31% of Mississippi'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!


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