This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
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story → publish → collaboration
When Trump was elected in both 2016 and 2024, promising to make the federal government hostile to climate action, many climate advocates insisted that state and local governments would take up the mantle of pushing for clean energy.
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governments → elect → energy
That’s the thesis of the “America Is All In” coalition, which brings together cities and states that have vowed to uphold America’s “climate commitments…[i]n the absence of federal leadership.”
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that → ’ → leadership
The unspoken caveat in these claims is that the states leading the way on climate policy are concentrated in a few liberal parts of the country, like New England and the West Coast.
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states → lead → England
The Democratic Party’s historic victory in this week’s midterm elections could change that.
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victory → change → that
Democrats have secured control of both state legislative chambers and the governor’s mansion—also known as a “trifecta”—in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, three states that have spent years or decades under Republican or divided control.
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that → secure → control
The three states have also lagged in their support for clean energy.
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states → lag → energy
Democrats also restored trifectas in Minnesota, Michigan, and Nevada this week, but those are states where they last had unified control earlier this decade.
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they → restore → control
“It is impossible to overstate how monumental these results are,” said David Weiskopf, the senior policy director at Climate Cabinet, a nonprofit that works to elect climate-focused candidates and pass state climate policy.
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that → overstate → policy
He said that the six states where Democrats have secured trifectas would be one of the world’s largest emitters if they made up their own country, rivaling Canada and Saudi Arabia.
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they → say → Canada
“This is just a massive opportunity to make progress.”
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This → make → progress
Here’s how the election could open up the floodgates for new climate policy:
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election → ’ → policy
Compared to its neighbors in the Upper Midwest, Wisconsin has been far less ambitious when it comes to ditching fossil fuels in its power sector.
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it → compare → sector
While Michigan and Minnesota have both passed laws that mandate that the states get all their power from clean sources by 2040, Wisconsin set a measly 10 percent renewable electricity standard more than two decades ago.
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Wisconsin → pass → standard
It blew past that goal but never set a new target.
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It → blow → target
Unlike most other states, it doesn’t even require utilities to plan for what kinds of power plants they want to build.
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they → require → plants
The state gets a larger share of its electricity from coal than its immediate neighbors.
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state → get → neighbors
Renewable energy advocates in the Badger State believe they can make some short-term gains with Democrats’ first trifecta since 2010.
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they → believe → 2010
Erik Kanter, the policy director for the nonprofit Clean Wisconsin, said he believes that the new Legislature can agree on the “low-hanging fruit” of making utilities plan for the future, which he said will nudge more of them to build renewables rather than extending the lifespans of gas and coal plants.
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he → say → plants
The Wisconsin Legislature failed this year to pass a law that would require data centers to source their power from clean sources, and Kanter expects such a measure to pass once Democrats take control.
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Democrats → fail → control
The Legislature will also likely renew programs like Knowles-Nelson, a longstanding fund for parks and ecosystem preservation, which once enjoyed bipartisan approval but has lost support from Republicans in recent years.
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which → renew → years
Weiskopf, of Climate Cabinet, believes that even more ambitious moves are in the offing.
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moves → believe → offing
He expects Wisconsin’s new class of legislators to pursue a 100 percent clean electricity standard, filling what he calls a “Wisconsin-sized hole” in the Upper Midwest.
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he → expect → Midwest
Not only would that help to phase out coal in the state, it would also make it easier for neighboring states to meet their climate goals, since the whole region shares the same interconnected power grid.
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region → help → grid
The Pennsylvania Senate has long been known to Democrats as the place where climate policy goes to die.
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policy → know → place
Even though the party managed to flip the lower house of the Legislature a few years ago, Republican leaders in the upper chamber often refused to bring climate bills to a vote.
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leaders → manage → vote
The Keystone State’s status as a large producer of both natural gas and coal also made it difficult to secure agreements within the Democratic Party on clean energy proposals.
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it → make → proposals
“You don’t want to let yourself fully imagine what it can be, because you’ve been let down in the past,” said Lindsey Williams, a state senator who represents a swath of the Pittsburgh metro area.
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who → want → area
“Now we’re in that moment of, wow, there’s so many things that we can accomplish.
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we → ’re → that
Every year since 2019, Williams has introduced a bill that would establish mandatory energy and water efficiency standards for appliances like ovens and showerheads, a measure she said could save consumers millions of dollars a year.
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she → introduce → dollars
The legislation has never moved forward—but she thinks it will in next year’s session.
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it → move → session
She hopes Democrats will use their first trifecta since 1993 to advance a full-scope climate agenda.
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Democrats → hop → agenda
In addition to passing laws that would allow community solar and warehouse rooftop solar, Democratic lawmakers also want to pass a funding package for struggling mass transit systems like Philadelphia’s.
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lawmakers → pass → Philadelphia
The $1.5 billion infusion would help prevent the transit “death spiral” for those systems and would reduce reliance on gasoline-powered cars.
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infusion → prevent → cars
The state’s reelected centrist governor, Josh Shapiro, appears to be on board with at least some of these proposals.
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governor → reelect → proposals
Although he withdrew the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a Northeast-wide carbon pricing system, he has promised to create a similar cap-and-trade system for Pennsylvania itself if he can get legislative support.
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he → withdraw → support
He has also named funding for mass transit as a leading item on his agenda for the new legislative session next year.
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He → name → session
But Democrats will have to be careful: While they will now control both chambers, they’ll have slim majorities in each, and may have just a narrow two-year window to pass climate policy before one flips back.
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one → have → policy
“We need to be brave and lead,” said Williams.
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Williams → need → ?
“Yes, what are the low-hanging fruits, but what are the big ambitious things that we can get done this session?
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we → hang → that
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
