In 2019, States Are Leading On Clean Energy Where Trump Falls Behind
By Gene Karpinski, LCV President
While President Trump declares manufactured emergencies, and mocked the real emergency of climate change at a speech for conservative activists last weekend, many of the nation’s new governors are spending their first weeks in office stepping up to address a real emergency where the Federal government is falling behind.
Just this week, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced his proposals to achieve 100 percent clean energy by 2050, and he’s not alone in driving this progress at the state level. Last week, Maine Governor Janet Mills announced her plans to reach 100% clean energy by 2050 with an added step of reaching 80% by 2030.
Mills also joins Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who have all used the first weeks of their administrations to join the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of governors committed to the Paris Climate agreement goals.
State action matters. Sixty percent of the growth in renewable energy since 2000 has been a result of state renewable energy standards, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Turning governors’ bold clean energy commitments on the campaign trail into real world policies is key to remaining on track to the Paris Climate Agreement goals — and creating the safe, healthy and prosperous communities that everyone deserves.
Within their first weeks in office, Whitmer took other concrete action to address climate change through a series of executive orders, Lujan Grisham committed to putting her state on a path to 80% renewable energy by 2040, and Pritzker renewed his campaign commitment to put Illinois on a path to 100% clean energy that benefits all communities.
These governors aren’t the only ones taking immediate action to transition their states to a new energy economy. Many state leaders across the country have spent their first weeks in office laying out specific agendas that translate the ambitious promises they made on the campaign trail.
Taken together, we’re seeing governors use their authority on electricity production, vehicles and infrastructure to start a race to the top to see which states reap the benefits of clean energy for all — where a just transition to clean energy provides good family-sustaining jobs, growth and pollution-free communities, including for the communities of color and low wealth communities that have disproportionately felt the impacts of corporate polluters.
For example, Colorado Governor Jared Polis used his first executive order to expand Zero-Emission vehicles and investments in clean, electric buses. Governor Kate Brown in Oregon made her ambitious plan to cap carbon pollution a core part of her state of the state address and emphasized harmful impacts wildfires and drought are having on her state’s economy. Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak sought Nevada to once again be number one in solar when committing that half the state’s electricity come from renewables.
Nine new governors committed to transition their states to 100% clean energy when campaigning last fall. They joined over 600 other successful local, state and federal candidates making the same commitment as part of the Clean Energy for All campaign launched by the League of Conservation Voters and its 30 state affiliates in the Conservation Voter Movement.
New Jersey offers a glimpse of the early payoffs when a governor acts. After being the first governor to campaign on 100 percent clean energy, Phil Murphy, now in his second year in office, signed legislation within his first six months committing New Jersey to get half its energy from renewables by 2030 — a strong down-payment on his clean energy vision. He also announced a plan to make New Jersey the nation’s leader in offshore wind. Soon after, German offshore wind company EnBW announced Jersey City as the location of its North American headquarters. Governor Murphy is laying the groundwork for an entire new industry in the garden state.
These first few weeks and months with new governors in power give us great hope that Maine will become the next offshore wind leader, Nevada will regain its frontrunner status on solar, Illinois will become the clean jobs capital of the Midwest, with much more to come across the country.
