⚡ How can the U.S. make clean electricity? For my Climate Lab column, I made a tool that lets you look up your state to find out how it has made electricity for the past 20 years, and see the resulting carbon intensity. Check it out:

These 6 states make the cleanest power. How do they do it? Not with wind or solar, but with hydroelectric dams and nuclear power plants. But the biggest enviro groups in the U.S. oppose building more of either. So how do they propose to clean the grid?

One idea: wind turbines. Here's the 6 states with the most wind power. What do they have in common? Lots of land & wind! Heavily populated coasts don't have either, so we'll need long-distance power lines that are hard — but not impossible! — to build.

What about solar? Here are the 6 states with the most solar. Problem: Solar panels sit idle at night. Solution: Lots more batteries. Meanwhile, grids with lots of solar often rely on natural gas plants to quickly ramp up generation to fill in the gaps.

Speaking of natural gas, did you know that between 2005 and 2018, replacing coal with natural gas drove a larger reduction in CO2 emissions than replacing coal with zero-carbon sources like wind and solar? Wild!

But natural gas is still a fossil fuel. Compare the 3 biggest coal states to the 3 biggest gas states. Yes, natural gas is cleaner, but states that rely heavily on gas make dirtier electricity than the national average. Whoops.

To solve climate change, we will need MORE electricity, not less, because every fossil-fuel powered machine will need to plug in. And that electricity will need to be carbon-free. Is it time to rethink nuclear? Maybe it's not as scary as you've heard.

As with every Climate Lab column, I've posted the code for my data analysis and charts on @observablehq. Check my work here:

That's it for Climate Lab column #5. Check out the full story here to look up your state and find out how it compares to the rest of the country:

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Harry - I cannot fault your math but your graph for Vermont is misleading. It makes it look like closing nuclear helped VT lower its carbon intensity. But VT's generation dropped from more than 5,000 GWh to just 209 GWh when the state forced Vermont Yankee to close