This post was originally published on Legal Planet. Reprinted with permission.
It’s a tribute to the significance of state climate policies that President Donald Trump devoted an entire executive order to excoriating them as “fundamentally irreconcilable” with his own, fossil fuel-promoting energy policy. Yet, despite all the drama in DC, state governments have continued to make quiet progress in their efforts to expand clean energy and phase out fossil fuels. These states are focused on tangible steps forward, not on capturing online clicks, so their efforts may escape notice. But the cumulative effect of these month-by-month, smaller-scale initiatives is significant. Here are some of the state actions undertaken since Trump took office.
CALIFORNIA — Governor Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders have pledged to seek legislation extending California’s cap-and-trade system beyond 2030.
COLORADO — The state’s air pollution agency adopted stricter rules to prevent methane leaks from oil and gas operations.
ILLINOIS — A new statute provides assurances about payment of project costs for approved renewable energy projects, requires 55 percent of 2030 renewables to come from solar, and creates tax incentives for new battery storage projects.
MASSACHUSETTS — The Department of Public Utilities approved a new three-year plan for energy efficiency, including installing 120,000 heat pumps and weatherizing over 180,000 homes, reducing carbon emissions by 1 million tons.
MINNESOTA — The utility commission approved an Xcel Energy plan to achieve 100 percent clean power by 2035. The plan requires closing all coal plants by 2030, adding 3.2 GW of wind and 400 MW of solar, along with 600 MW of battery storage, and incorporating at least 1.8 GW of distributed energy resources. Minnesota also launched the Large Building Energy Benchmarking Program, requiring large commercial buildings to submit annual energy reports to the state.
NEW HAMPSHIRE — A new statute established a loan program to finance clean energy and efficiency improvements in commercial buildings.
NEW JERSEY — The state agreed to provide $100 million in funding to support zero-emission medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks and buses.
NEW MEXICO — The state passed eight new climate laws covering a wide range of topics, such as advanced grid technologies, geothermal power, energy storage, and funding for projects to reduce carbon emissions.
NEW YORK — State regulators approved a program to provide 1.5 GW of retail energy storage and 200 MW of residential storage. A new law requires new buildings to provide EV charging stations for off-street parking.
VERMONT — State agencies completed a report on a possible cap-and-invest program, which the state treasurer will use as a basis for recommendations to the state legislature.
VIRGINIA — A new law allows lessees to take advantage of the state’s C-PACE loan program. Another law requires consideration of advanced grid technologies when evaluating applications for new transmission lines.
WASHINGTON — A judge overturned a state ballot measure that blocked the state’s move away from natural gas.
The undramatic nature of these initiatives is probably an advantage because they don’t attract much notice from the forces in DC and elsewhere that are hostile to clean energy. Nonetheless, slowly but steadily, they are moving the energy transition forward.
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Daniel Farber | April 24, 2025
It’s a tribute to the significance of state climate policies that President Donald Trump devoted an entire executive order to excoriating them as “fundamentally irreconcilable” with his own, fossil fuel-promoting energy policy. Yet, despite all the drama in DC, state governments have continued to make quiet progress in their efforts to expand clean energy and phase out fossil fuels. These states are focused on tangible steps forward, not on capturing online clicks, so their efforts may escape notice. But the cumulative effect of these month-by-month, smaller-scale initiatives is significant.
James Goodwin | April 23, 2025
On April 23, the Trump administration formally published a rulemaking proposal in the Federal Register that would lay the legal groundwork for creating a new category of civil service personnel called “Schedule Policy/Career” — better known as “Schedule F.” Long anticipated, this policy would strip civil service employees of century-old employment protections, effectively making them “at will” employees, much like a president’s political appointees.
Sophie Loeb | April 23, 2025
As North Carolinians continue to grapple with rolling blackouts, rising energy bills, and recovery from a once-in-a-generation hurricane event, another pending environmental catastrophe is developing in our backyards. On Monday, May 5, the North Carolina Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing to gather feedback on Duke Energy’s plans to build a second new methane gas power plant near its existing coal plant on Hyco Lake in Person County as part of the state’s decarbonization plan.
Federico Holm | April 21, 2025
Since our last update (April 7), we have seen some important developments regarding Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions. In addition to the two resolutions signed into law on March 15 (easing protections that will mostly benefit the fossil fuel industry), one more resolution has become law.
Bryan Dunning | April 16, 2025
On April 8, the Trump administration issued the “Protecting American Energy From State Overreach” executive order (EO), another in a blitz of orders and declarations focused on the energy sector. As with the other energy-related EOs, it contains numerous references to advancing so-called “energy dominance” — which is largely and ideologically focused on fossil fuel industries — despite the United States already being “dominant” in this sector.
Sophie Loeb | April 15, 2025
In the midst of countless federal deregulatory actions, it’s easy to lose track of what’s happening to undermine states’ climate regulations and laws. Here in North Carolina, we are facing the cascading consequences of federal deregulation layered on top of threats to our state’s carbon plan law.
James Goodwin | April 10, 2025
During the night of April 9, President Donald Trump continued his administration’s radical assault on our nation’s critical system of regulatory safeguards with three new executive orders and a separate memorandum. These actions build on several previous ones that target regulatory safeguards, and they traffic in a lot of the same false rhetoric about the essential role our regulatory system plays in our society. But what makes these actions different is the manner in which they trample on administrative law and the procedural protections that it is meant to uphold.
Daniel Farber | April 9, 2025
On April 8, flanked by a few coal miners in hard hats, President Donald Trump signed four executive orders to restore their industry to its past glory. Given that coal is now the most expensive way to generate power other than nuclear, that’s going to be a heavy lift. Like many of Trump’s orders, these four are full of threats and bluster but will have little immediate effect.
Federico Holm | April 7, 2025
Since our last update (March 31), we have seen some movement regarding CRA resolutions. There have been no new resolutions signed into law (only two so far), but two more resolutions have cleared both chambers, so we can expect a signature from the president soon.