Clean US Electricity

Canary Media: “Chart: Which US states have the cleanest electricity?” As a proud Washingtonian, I am glad to say that our state has the greenest grid in the country. EPA data as of the end of 2022 showed 13 states received the majority of their electricity from renewables. “The rest still mostly depend on fossil-fueled sources to keep their lights on.” While we rely on the ‘prodigious’ hydropower resources of the Columbia River, Washington needs to diversify since in 2022 we sourced less than 7% of our electricity from wind + under 1% from solar. [Our home north of Seattle gets more than 100% of net electricity from rooftop solar]. South Dakoa rode the winds for nearly 58% of its electricity. Before 2019 it had installed 526 wind turbes, then skyrocketed up with another 511 turbines between 2019 through 2021. “Vermont, which boasted the third-cleanest grid, according to the data, sourced over half its energy from hydropower and 19 percent from wind in 2022.” And Vermont recently passed  a law requiring utilities to reach 100% by 2035. At the bottom of the list, the ‘state with the dirtiest grid, Delaware, still relies heavily on fossil gas and gets only a fraction of its power from wind and solar.’ But they have committed to reducing GHG emissions by half over the next 6 yrs. “While the country overall still has a long way to go, it’s worth noting that when a clean energy project gets built in a state with a dirtier grid, the impact is far greater. Building a new solar plant in eastern Kentucky, for example, would reduce emissions by 62percent more than building that plant in Los Angeles, as a report from Clearloop and WattTime details.” Seeking to bolster their reputations, ‘several of those states—including Wyoming and West Virginia —are presently taking steps to build what would be their largest solar installations by far. [Note most of these data are from 2022…it is a constant irritation to me how hard it is to access up to date information].