Taking It to the States

Governors are at the forefront of the battle to address climate change.

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The year 2021 was a banner year for states determined to take action on the climate emergency.  

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, issued an executive order that requires state agencies to buy zero-emissions vehicles beginning in 2022 and to double the amount of electric vehicle chargers installed in all state facilities by 2030.

Illinois passed legislation to achieve 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045, the first state in the Midwest to adopt such a bold target. Along with customer protections and transparency requirements, the legislation guarantees job training to ensure a diverse workforce in the industry.

Hawaii established a sustainable aviation fuel program to provide matching grants to any small business in the state that is developing products that reduce emissions from commercial aviation operations.

These are just three of the dozens of actions taken by members of the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of twenty-five governors committed to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The alliance was founded in 2017 by three Democratic governors after the Trump Administration withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement. In 2015, more than 190 nations had agreed to keep global temperature rise in the twenty-first century well below two degrees Celsius—and preferably, 1.5 degrees—above preindustrial levels.

Governors Jerry Brown of California, Andrew Cuomo of New York, and Jay Inslee of Washington were concerned that the lack of federal leadership would increase the risk of droughts, heat waves, rising sea levels, and other catastrophic consequences of global warming. By sharing strategies and working across state lines, the governors aimed high.

These three states also had the necessary clout to institute and carry out policies. California is the nation’s largest state economy, followed by Texas and New York, while Washington has more STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) workers than any other state.

Seventeen governors joined the alliance the first year. Now there are twenty-five, mostly from blue states on the East and West Coasts and the Upper Midwest.

In May 2021, the alliance welcomed Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat who championed a climate initiative to ensure that Louisiana would become a net-zero greenhouse gas state by 2050.

Individually and collectively, the alliance members have made reducing greenhouse gasses a top priority, as they should: The United States is the second-largest producer of greenhouse gas after China. Members of the alliance produce 43 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“Alliance members have proven that tackling the climate crisis not only benefits them but the nation and the world,” says Taryn Finnessey, the U.S. Climate Alliance’s acting executive director and policy director.

Member states reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent compared to 12 percent for the rest of the country from 2005 to 2019, she said in a phone interview. They also created more than 130,000 new jobs in the clean energy industry, surpassing the rest of the nation from 2016 to 2019.

During the Trump Administration, when next to nothing was happening in regard to climate change at the federal level, members shared strategies across state lines. They fought the administration’s attempts to weaken federal regulations aimed at curtailing greenhouse gas emissions and direct air pollutants, such as methane, that cause serious respiratory and other health conditions.

The governors focused on developing new state programs to get cleaner and more affordable vehicles on the road, generate more electricity from renewable energy sources, and increase the efficiency of buildings and appliances.

These programs, says Finnessey, “helped decrease greenhouse gasses not only in the individual states but its neighbors and other regions.” However, she adds, “the alliance realized in 2021 that more aggressive goals and programs would be necessary in the years ahead.”

As the economy began to recover from the pandemic, greenhouse gasses increased by 6.2 percent in 2021, according to a preliminary analysis by Rhodium Group, a research and consulting firm. Emissions had dropped 10 percent in 2020, the largest one-year drop on record, as energy plummeted during the lockdowns.

“To meet the challenge, the alliance set a new goal in April 202l to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions to at least 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and achieve overall net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and no later than 2050,” Finnessey says. “Twenty-two states have economy-wide goals to reduce greenhouse gasses.”

Achieving net-zero emissions will require massive amounts of investment in infrastructure across the nation, at least $2.5 trillion in addition to expenditures for business-as-usual energy systems by 2030, the alliance predicts. To help bridge the gap between public funding and individual investments, there are now twenty-one green banks across fifteen states and Washington, D.C.

States are also leveraging their assets. In 2021, Maine passed legislation to require its $17 billion employee pension fund and the state’s treasury to fully divest from the fossil fuel industry within five years. Alliance members manage twenty-one of the thirty largest state pension plans, totaling $2.2 trillion in assets, so this could be a significant tool if other states follow Maine’s lead.

But, Finnessey says, the best news of 2021 was that the states now have a new partner: the federal government. In one of his first acts, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to have the United States rejoin the Paris Agreement.

One hopeful opportunity for U.S. climate policy, says Barry Rabe, a professor of public policy at the Ford School of the University of Michigan, would be for the federal government to follow the lead of states like Colorado and New Mexico in addressing methane gas emissions.

In 2021, New Mexico adopted natural gas waste-reduction rules requiring oil and gas operators to capture 98 percent of its natural gas waste by the end of 2026. These rules took a unique approach to regulating the oil and gas industry, requiring natural gas loss to be reported from both production and midstream operations, prohibiting routine venting and flaring, and setting increasing gas capture targets.

Under the Biden Administration’s new domestic climate policies, the Environmental Protection Agency would update rules for methane from new oil and gas sources and set limits on existing oil and gas sources. The Department of the Interior will focus on venting and flaring of methane from oil and gas operations and closing wells on public lands.

While the Biden Administration’s willingness to address climate change is a positive development, the nation’s ability to slash greenhouse gasses may depend on the passage of the Build Back Better bill, or at least some elements of it.

“Many states took a wait-and-see approach during the pandemic because they were concerned about having sufficient funds for programs,” says Rabe, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, which does public policy research. “The stalled spending bill would provide funds for moving the United States away from the reliance on fossil fuels, make buildings more energy efficient, and adopt other strategies that states have developed over the years.”

According to Rabe, the nation’s partisan divide over the issue of climate change will affect its ability to achieve its goals of decreasing global warming. “In the 1990s, there were Republican governors like George Pataki of New York who were deeply committed to taking action,” he notes. “But today, the affiliation of the policymakers is the most significant factor in what a state does. Democrats are more supportive of proposals than Republicans.”

Currently, the U.S. Climate Alliance includes just three Republican governors: Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Larry Hogan of Maryland, and Phil Scott of Vermont.

Republican Glenn Youngkin was elected governor of Virginia in November 2021. A former private equity chief executive officer, he is the first Republican to hold the office in nearly a decade. He replaced Democrat Ralph Northam, a pediatric neurologist who was a member of the alliance and ineligible to run for a second term.

In one of his first actions, Youngkin issued an executive order to fast-track Virginia’s removal from a regional carbon cap-and-trade program.

States Tackle Environmental Justice

Climate change disproportionately affects low-income communities and people of color. In 2021, members of the U.S. Climate Alliance took these steps to combat pollution and ensure a clean environment for all. According to the group’s annual report for 2021:

New York launched the $85 million clean transportation grants to reduce air pollution in disadvantaged communities.

Colorado created a new environmental justice department within the state’s transportation department, with $234 million set aside to address the public health impact of highway projects on low-income and other disproportionately impacted communities.

Connecticut established an energy efficiency retrofit grant program for affordable housing, awarding grants for weatherization and installation of rooftop solar systems, on-site energy storage, electric vehicle charging stations, heat pumps, and other equipment.

Delaware passed new legislation to support and expand access for community solar energy projects, requiring that a minimum of 15 percent of each project’s customers be low-income consumers.

New Mexico established a community solar program that requires that 30 percent of its electricity output go to low-income customers or service organizations.

Washington became the second state in the nation to establish an economy-wide cap-and-invest program. Taking effect in 2023, the program covers 75 percent of the state’s total emissions. Revenues must be invested in clean energy transition assistance, clean transportation, and climate resilience projects. At least 35 percent of funds are designated for overburdened communities and a minimum of 10 percent for tribally sponsored or tribally supported projects.

Nevada enacted legislation requiring all state agencies to collaborate with minority groups to ensure that policies and programs are accessible, including providing information in multiple languages.

New Jersey became the first state to mandate facility permit denials based on the impact of the facility—including power plants, waste processing and recycling plants, and landfills—on communities.