Trump calls climate change a hoax. But at the state level, the climate fight will continue — or even accelerate.
Excerpt from this story from Grist:
Even before President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House next Monday, California got ahead of things. Anticipating more of the federal meddling they’d seen in the past, like when Trump’s first administration tried to block the state’s vehicle emissions standards, lawmakers met in a special session to start preparing a defense of its progressive civil rights, reproductive freedom, and climate policies.
The incoming president brings renewed threats to climate progress. Trump has repeatedly called climate change a hoax. During his first term, he withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement and rolled back more than 100 environmental rules. In his second term, Trump has signaled he would attack Joe Biden’s climate policies any way he can, increase fossil fuel production, and stymie the expansion of renewable energy.Â
Yet he may not be as successful as he hopes, because states will once again take action. Their efforts, often led by California, have among other things pushed utilities to move away from fossil fuels, limited tailpipe emissions, and mandated energy-efficiency rules for buildings. It’s here, at the state level, where climate progress will continue, or even accelerate, in the years ahead.Â
“The way that our federalism works is, states have quite a lot of power to take action to both reduce carbon pollution and to protect residents from climate impacts,” said Wade Crowfoot, head of California’s Natural Resources Agency. “So regardless of who is president, states like California have been driving forward and will continue to drive forward.”
Such action occurred regularly in Trump’s first term. In 2017, a bipartisan coalition of governors launched the U.S. Climate Alliance to collaborate on policies to address the crisis. That coalition now includes two dozen states that are chasing 10 priorities, including reducing greenhouse gases, setting more efficient building standards, and advancing environmental justice.Â
“Governors have filled the void left by President Trump before, and are absolutely prepared to do it again,” said Casey Katims, executive director of the alliance. “A change in federal leadership really underscores the importance of state and local action over the next four years.” Governors have a strong mandate, too: A 2017 poll found that 66 percent of Americans think that in the absence of federal climate action, it’s their state’s responsibility to step in.
States have had additional reasons to ramp up their efforts: The Biden administration’s landmark climate legislation, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, provided $369 billion for clean energy tax credits along with other climate and energy programs. It also pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into industries involved in the green economy, like renewable energy.Â
