Democratic wins open clean-energy policy in 3 states — SkimNews
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- Democratic Party secured both legislative chambers and the governor’s office in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, while also restoring trifectas in Minnesota, Michigan and Nevada; the six states would rival Canada and Saudi Arabia as emitters if they formed a country.
- Wisconsin retains a 10% renewable electricity standard adopted more than two decades ago, does not require utilities to plan for future plants and gets a larger share of its electricity from coal than immediate neighbors; Michigan and Minnesota mandate 100% clean power by 2040.
- Clean Wisconsin policy director Erik Kanter identified utility-planning rules and clean-power sourcing for data centers as achievable priorities after Democrats’ first Wisconsin trifecta since 2010; the legislature failed this year to pass the data-center requirement.
- Lindsey Williams has introduced Pennsylvania appliance-efficiency standards every year since 2019, including requirements for ovens and showerheads, and wants the first Democratic trifecta since 1993 to pass community and warehouse solar laws plus a $1.5 billion mass-transit package.
- Josh Shapiro has promised a Pennsylvania cap-and-trade program if legislators provide support, even though he withdrew the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and placed mass-transit funding at the top of his next-session agenda.
- Arizona Corporation Commission is the target of reforms directing utilities to invest in solar, batteries and “virtual power plants”; two Democrats appear set to win commission seats, making those reforms easier to advance.
- Lauren Kuby says a groundwater-pumping bill has agreement from many Republicans and believes some form can pass in the coming year after repeated failures; the dispute covers rural dairies and alfalfa farms blamed for sinking land and drying residential wells.
Why it matters: Clean-energy advocates gain a concrete Pennsylvania agenda after the state’s first Democratic trifecta since 1993, including appliance-efficiency standards and a $1.5 billion transit package. Democrats’ slim majorities in both chambers make coalition-building central to whether those proposals reach Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk.
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