save energy.
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Welcome to Missoula's latest initiative to transition to climate friendly clean energy future.
Electrify Missoula is a collaborative effort of Climate Smart Missoula, Missoula County, the City of Missoula, and community members. Cities and states across the country are taking steps to decarbonize buildings, and a primary component of this effort is to transition to buildings powered by electricity. Electrify Missoula is designed to accelerate the path to efficient electric heating and cooling systems, including water heaters, kitchen appliances and more. And we're also working to increase the amount of clean electricity that powers our homes and businesses. We've lots to share on this website - stay awhile! We also know we don't have all the answers. Be in touch if you can help!
The problem.In Missoula, many residences rely on methane gas (aka "natural gas") for space and water heating and cooling, cooking, and clothes-drying. As a result, our building sector is a major contributor to climate change, accounting for the majority of our community's carbon emissions. Avoiding the worst impacts of climate change requires that we phase out fossil fuels entirely, and that includes getting buildings off methane gas.
Burning methane gas in your home is also a threat to your health and safety. Gas-powered systems contribute to unhealthy indoor and outdoor air quality and rely on sometimes dangerous gas line infrastructure. Studies have found that children and other vulnerable populations living in homes with gas stoves have significantly higher rates of asthma. Gas is highly combustible when mixed with air which makes residential gas leaks extremely dangerous.
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Why electrify?Save: Energy
There are significant energy savings with high-efficiency electric appliances versus traditional gas appliances, which allows you to... Improve: Health Replacing gas appliances with electric appliances creates safer, healthier indoor environments for you and your household. Cooking with gas can lead to levels of indoor air pollutants that the EPA would consider hazardous outdoors ! Reduce: Emissions In a 15 year time period, an all-electric home will produce about 2 tons of C02 compared to 30 tons in a mixed-fuel home. Although the electricity most Missoulians use today is only about 60% "clean", this will shift. The City of Missoula and Missoula County have established a goal of 100% clean electricity for the Missoula urban area by 2030. Save: Money (now or down the road) We cannot guarantee making the switch will save you money right away. It is so situational! A residence with high-efficiency electric appliances should end up paying lower utility rates, but we know making the switch can be costly. How much you save and when you'll see those returns depends on the building you're starting with (new or retrofit?), rebates and incentives, and, ultimately, the price of fossil vs clean energy! If we all advocate for a speedy transition, we all will save. |
A just transition.The transition to clean energy is inevitable. A just and equitable transition is not.
Equitable Electrification means actively engaging communities that have been marginalized and historically left out of economic and community development conversations and opportunities. It means ensuring that the financial, health, and social costs of the energy transition aren't simply passed along to our most vulnerable community members. We don't have all the answers, but we are working to make this transition a democratic one and to decrease the barriers of going electric for all Missoulians. |
By the numbers.
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560 million tons - the amount of C02 generated per year from American homes and businesses that burn natural gas, oil, or propane on-site to heat their space and water
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52% - percent of total carbon emissions in the Missoula Community that are a byproduct of the building sector. This doesn't account for embodied carbon.
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3.8 million - number of people that die prematurely per year from illness attributed to household air pollution caused by the inefficient use of fossil fuels for cooling and heating,
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Learn more. About why we need to Electrify Everything here!
Electrify Everything!
