ASIAN WISCONZINE ONLINE
FEBRUARY 2025 ISSUE
States Must Lead the Way on Climate (Part 1)
By Reema Bzeih, Sam Ricketts, and Shannon Baker-Branstetter
(Left)
Workers install solar panels atop a research and development facility in Los Angeles, April 2023. (Getty/Mario Tama).
Introduction and summary
State climate action has never been more important. Donald Trump’s reelection to the White House, and his administration’s stated intention to stall and reverse federal climate and clean energy policies, means it is even more imperative that states lead the way on climate. A majority of the American people know that climate change is real and harms the nation, and they want the government to do something about it. And a majority support expanding access to clean energy, rather than more fossil fuels. However, starting in January, the Trump administration could work in the opposite direction.
For years, many state governments have demonstrated strong leadership on climate change. Indeed, the Center for American Progress and its partners have argued that states laid a policy road map for bold nationwide climate action, which informed the groundbreaking policies advanced in the Biden-Harris administration. However, as the impacts of climate change continue to accelerate—with deadly consequences for American communities and around the globe—and as federal lawmakers look to take U.S. climate policy backward, more state governments must go further in this leadership. State governments must enact new ambitious policies to foster even faster progress to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs, as well as to deliver good jobs, equitable economic development, and healthier communities. Those states that lead on climate will lower energy costs for their consumers and create more good jobs for their residents, as evidenced by the states that led on climate during the first Trump administration.
Under the landmark Paris Agreement, the United States is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent to 52 percent by 2030. With the federal and state policies enacted as of June 2024, the United States is estimated to be on track to reduce this climate pollution by 32 percent to 43 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. Even without the incoming Trump administration’s problematic climate policies, this gap between the emissions reductions needed to stabilize the climate and the emissions cuts expected from current policy raised a call for more ambitious action at all levels of government. In December 2024, President Biden announced a new climate target for the United States: a 61 percent to 66 percent reduction in 2035 from 2005 levels in economywide net greenhouse gas emissions. Now, however, with the incoming Trump administration and other policymakers who are openly hostile to climate policy returning to the White House, and a federal judiciary that has already targeted environmental protections, it will once again fall upon state governments to carry the mantle of U.S. climate leadership. Local governments have a critically important role to play as well. States are no strangers to making game-changing moves on climate.
States created the nation’s first pollution control laws and clean energy standards and demonstrated continued climate leadership when former President Trump first tried to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement. State leadership on climate change, justice, and jobs laid much of the groundwork for the progress made by the federal government during the Biden-Harris administration. And state leadership continues to this day: For example, in 2024, Vermont made history as the first state to require the fossil fuel industry to pay for the cost of recovering from and preparing for extreme weather events driven by climate change. Also, in 2024, Washington state voters overwhelmingly affirmed the state’s Climate Commitment Act, aimed at achieving a 95 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury and investing billions in community solutions. And in 2023, Minnesota was one of the first states to require a comprehensive evaluation of the climate pollution associated with new transportation infrastructure projects.
In many ways, state governments are much better positioned today to continue advancing climate action than when Trump first took office in 2017. The U.S. Climate Alliance—a coalition of governors committed to continued climate progress—now boasts 24 member governors. In addition, there are now twice as many pro-clean energy state legislatures. As 2025 begins, states must be called upon to go further and faster by taking action on climate strategies across every sector of their economies. States that have adopted a robust agenda for 100 percent clean electricity must now do the same for transportation and built infrastructure. States must lead the way in industrial decarbonization and pollution reduction by supporting clean and globally competitive U.S. manufacturing industries. And states must advance policies that deliver an equitable clean energy transition, and make polluters pay to clean up their mess. T
his report identifies key policy advancements that are possible in a state-focused climate action race to the top, especially if states adopt the best-in-class climate policy ideas of other states in the power, transportation, buildings, and industrial sectors, as well as cross-cutting policies such as environmental justice and workforce development needed for a climate-ready workforce. In addition, this report also identifies best-in-class policies for states to hold polluters accountable and to finance an equitable clean energy transition.
Key policies for specific sectors include the following:
Power sector: delivering 100 percent clean electricity
Adopt and accelerate clean electricity standards
Hold utilities accountable via public utility commissions
Set energy storage targets and promote grid-enhancing technologies
Streamline clean energy and transmission siting, permitting, and interconnection
Support community solar
Transportation sector: accelerating the zero-emission vehicle market and build-out of zero-emission transportation infrastructure
Adopt Advanced Clean Cars II and Advanced Clean Trucks standards
Set and deliver on statewide vehicle miles traveled reduction targets
Integrate climate assessment in the transportation planning processes
Invest in transit infrastructure
Establish electric vehicle-ready requirements for buildings
Industry sector: supporting clean and competitive U.S. manufacturing industries
Adopt green public procurement policies
Incentivize industry to achieve emissions reductions
Establish industrial emission standards
Establish methane regulations for landfills
Divert food waste from landfills
Phase out products using hydrofluorocarbons
Finance conservation and climate-smart practices in agriculture
Buildings sector: reducing energy use and pollution from buildings
Adopt building performance standards
Adopt clean heat standards
Adopt appliance efficiency and emission standards
Enhance clean building codes
Enact state housing and land-use reforms
Decommission gas systems on a neighborhood scale
Accountability for polluters: holding the fossil fuel industry accountable and using market-based mechanisms Price pollution and reinvest in communities
Hold polluters legally accountable for cleaning up their mess
Environmental and economic justice: prioritizing equity and justice in climate policy
Target investments in disadvantaged communities
Deploy inclusive green finance
Require facilities to reduce local pollution in environmental justice communities
Engage community members in policy processes
Develop state-specific mapping tools
Workforce development: supporting a clean energy economy
Tie labor standards to clean economy investments
Support registered apprenticeship and preapprenticeship programs
Seek worker input for workforce development and transition
Past analysis has demonstrated that aggressive state action is a necessary complement to federal policies and can put the 2030 Paris climate target in reach, while even substantial progress on climate policy only at the federal level does not. The role of states is even more important in the absence of federal action.
State policies to deliver on climate, costs, justice, and jobs goals
States can reduce their emissions and energy costs while also increasing job numbers and economic opportunity for disadvantaged communities by adopting the following high-impact policies.
Power sector: Delivering 100 percent clean electricity
The build-out of clean, carbon-free electricity is the linchpin to delivering a low-cost clean energy economy. Clean electricity is important in reducing emissions from not only power plants, but also other sectors such as transportation, buildings, and heavy industry, which are increasingly powered by electricity. States that have in recent years experienced the highest levels of new clean energy deployment have delivered the greatest benefits for their residents’ electric bills.
States must lead the way in developing and implementing policies that will achieve 100 percent clean electricity as rapidly as possible, and with it, a more reliable, resilient, and lower-cost power sector. Already, 24 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have embraced 100 percent clean electricity as a goal. And 13 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have enacted policies requiring their electric utilities transition to 100 percent clean power. To realize this agenda, states should adopt policies such as clean electricity standards (CES), reforms to empower their public utility commissions (PUCs), energy storage targets, streamlined clean energy permitting, and support for community solar. The following policies support decarbonization of the electricity sector, including establishing interim targets and identifying opportunities to improve processes for generation, distribution, and accessibility to reliable power.
Adopt and accelerate clean electricity standards
States should adopt and accelerate timelines for performance standards requiring electric utilities to provide 100 percent carbon-free power to their customers. These standards, which first appeared in the early 1980s, require that a certain percentage of electricity that utilities produce comes from renewable or zero-carbon sources. These standards can take the form of renewable portfolio standards (RPS), which include renewable sources such as solar, wind, and hydropower, or CES policies, which include other low- or zero-emission sources such as nuclear energy and carbon capture and sequestration. Most states have also adopted an energy efficiency resource standard, which requires utilities to achieve greater energy efficiency. This policy goal could see renewed urgency given exploding utility load growth. Requiring utilities to use more clean electricity and achieve greater energy efficiency can also be accomplished through state PUC actions. These policies play an integral role in state efforts to diversify their energy mix, cut consumer costs, promote economic development, and reduce emissions.
The following states have led the way in setting 100 percent clean electricity standards, and their leadership can continue to inspire other states to adopt similar measures:
Hawaii in 2015 enacted the nation’s first law requiring its electric utilities to achieve 100 percent clean electricity, with an RPS law requiring 100 percent renewable energy by 2045.
Michigan’s clean energy future plan, signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) in 2023, includes an RPS requiring 60 percent renewable power by 2030, and a CES requiring 100 percent clean electricity by 2040. This legislative package also requires utilities to increase energy efficiency streamlines the permitting of new wind, solar, and storage projects sets a target for energy storage deployment expands access to rooftop solar and establishes a new office to support communities and workers in the energy transition.
Virginia’s Clean Economy Act, passed in 2020, made it the first Southern state to adopt a 100 percent CES.28 The state’s largest utilities must achieve 100 percent carbon-free energy generation by 2050.
Rhode Island has adopted the fastest 100 percent clean electricity requirement of any state, with an RPS requiring electric distribution companies and nonregulated power producers to supply 100 percent of their retail electric sales from renewable energy sources by 2033. This RPS has been updated twice since its first enactment in 2004.
Hold utilities accountable via public utility commissions
Most state PUCs were created in the early 1900s to regulate monopoly utilities spanning the electric, gas, water, telecommunications, rail, and other industries. Today, PUCs must embrace their role ensuring public utilities are acting in the public interest and addressing 21st-century grid challenges.33 In most states, PUCs hold strong regulatory authority that can be used to make progress for their states’ energy costs, climate goals, and grid reliability. At the same time, the statutory authority of many PUCs is outdated and may not fall short of ensuring PUCs can hold utilities accountable for incorporating decarbonization and environmental justice in their decision-making. PUC commissioners, and the governors, legislators, and voters who appoint them, should be held accountable for using these important bodies to modernize the power sector for a clean, reliable, and resilient energy future. In the least, PUCs should ensure their utilities account for the cost-saving effects of federal tax incentives in their planning. State PUCs must be proactive, aligned with the needs of a 21st-century grid, centering ratepayer cost concerns, and consistent with its state climate goals.
The following states have taken steps to require their utilities to support and align with state electrification and decarbonization goals:
Colorado was one of the first states to require its major utilities to factor in the social cost of carbon into their integrated resource plans. Today, the state’s PUC also has the authority to embed equity into its decision-making.
Maine revised the statutory authority of its PUC to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with state targets and requires state agencies to address equity concerns in environmental justice, front-line, and other vulnerable communities.
New Mexico’s Public Regulation Commission in 2020 rejected a gas power plant proposed by a local utility on the grounds that the plant was not in the public interest, in that it did not comply with state laws and policies requiring a shift to a decarbonized grid.
Oregon directed its PUC to integrate the state’s climate pollution reduction goals and promote equity by prioritizing vulnerable populations and affected communities. It also required the PUC to consider climate change impacts and establish a public process to address differential energy burdens and inequities of affordability and environmental justice, including rate design and other programs to mitigate energy costs.
Set energy storage targets and promote grid-enhancing technologies
Clean energy storage systems for renewable energy include technologies integrated into the electric grid to capture energy from solar, wind, and hydroelectric power and to store it to be used later. These technologies help balance energy supply and demand and ensure the grid works efficiently, as energy is released only when needed rather than lost during times of lower energy demand. Grid-enhancing technologies help increase the capacity of existing transmission lines and electric distribution systems—helping to deliver more clean power from where it is generated to where it is consumed. States should set clean energy storage targets and policies enabling grid-enhancing technologies to promote deploying and utilizing these technologies that align with and empower state clean energy goals.
The following states have set ambitious energy storage targets to help stabilize their electric grids in an efficient and timely manner:
California was the first state to adopt an energy storage procurement target. It initially required that the state’s investor-owned utilities procure 1.325 gigawatts (GW) of energy storage by 2020, before revising the goal to 1.825 GW by 2020. The California PUC approved a plan to set the state on a course of adding 86 GW of new resources to the grid by 2035.
Maryland is one of the most recent states to enact an energy storage target, with a goal to deploy 3 GW of storage capacity by 2033.
Montana’s House Bill 729, adopted in 2023, enables the state PUC to set cost-effectiveness criteria to allow utilities to deploy advanced transmission conductor technologies and recoup the cost via their ratepayers, similar to investments in new energy generation.
New York initially set a goal to procure 3 GW of energy storage by 2030 but most recently announced plans to double that goal to reach 6 GW by 2030.
Streamline clean energy and transmission siting, permitting, and interconnection
The current time frames to permit and build renewable energy and interconnect systems are substantially longer than it takes to develop these projects. States must update their siting and permitting policies to allow the greater United States to connect GWs of new clean energy and transmission projects to the grid, reduce power costs, and improve grid reliability nationwide while also ensuring meaningful community engagement. States should also partner with their regional grid operators to advocate for and expedite interconnection processes and transmission planning for new clean energy projects.
The following states have taken steps to reform their siting and permitting standards to accelerate their deployment of clean energy technologies:
Illinois set statewide renewable energy project siting standards that takes supremacy over unduly restrictive local decisions.
Michigan also accelerated procedures by giving the Michigan Public Service Commission authority over siting wind projects larger than 100 megawatts (MW) and solar and battery storage projects larger than 50 MW.
Minnesota consolidated certain permitting responsibilities into a single law and shortened the timeline for state regulators to review and permit clean energy projects.
Washington increased the efficiency of siting and permitting by directing agencies to conduct preproject evaluation and analysis, while also establishing and investing resources in a fully coordinated permit process administered by the state’s Department of Ecology.
Texas has demonstrated enormous success in rapidly deploying clean energy and transmission. Clean energy is deployed through a “connect and manage”-style interconnection system, while transmission is deployed through a competitive renewable energy zones program that connects renewable energy with transmission projects to serve customers.
Support community solar
Shared renewables, or community renewables, are a successful energy model allowing multiple customers to buy, lease, or subscribe to a portion of a shared green power system that is usually located away from their home or business. Community solar consists of a large-scale solar array connected to the local electricity grid. Through this energy system, local residents, businesses, organizations, and municipalities serviced by the cooperating utility company can subscribe to the solar farm and receive credits on their electricity bills. This provides numerous benefits, including lowering electricity bills, creating local jobs, and enhancing resilience during blackouts or weather events. States should develop strong incentive programs to expand their markets for community solar.
The following states have successfully integrated community solar into their electricity grids, and these best-practice models can be scaled to other states:
New York has the largest community solar market in the country. This is in part due to generous incentive programs and a large population of residents needing to depend on a community solar farm as a result of having unsuitable roofs or being among the 46 percent of New Yorkers who rent their home. Each project must have at least 10 subscribers, and each subscriber must be allocated at least 1,000 kilowatt-hours per year.
Minnesota’s utilities installed 20 times more capacity than initially planned due to local interest, and the state’s PUC has worked to create an accessible, well-incentivized community solar system for homeowners and renters across the state. A qualifying solar garden must have at least 25 subscribers per MW, and low- to moderate-income households must constitute 30 percent of subscribers of each garden’s generation capacity.
Massachusetts was one of the first states to offer community solar options, and the first and only state to offer solar renewable energy credits in community solar contracts. For all community solar projects, at least half of the project’s users must be low-income residential customers.
Reema Bzeih is Associate Director, State Climate Policy
Sam Ricketts is Senior Fellow
Shannon Baker-Branstetter is Senior Director, Domestic Climate and Energy Policy
State climate action has never been more important. Donald Trump’s reelection to the White House, and his administration’s stated intention to stall and reverse federal climate and clean energy policies, means it is even more imperative that states lead the way on climate. A majority of the American people know that climate change is real and harms the nation, and they want the government to do something about it. And a majority support expanding access to clean energy, rather than more fossil fuels. However, starting in January, the Trump administration could work in the opposite direction.
For years, many state governments have demonstrated strong leadership on climate change. Indeed, the Center for American Progress and its partners have argued that states laid a policy road map for bold nationwide climate action, which informed the groundbreaking policies advanced in the Biden-Harris administration. However, as the impacts of climate change continue to accelerate—with deadly consequences for American communities and around the globe—and as federal lawmakers look to take U.S. climate policy backward, more state governments must go further in this leadership. State governments must enact new ambitious policies to foster even faster progress to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs, as well as to deliver good jobs, equitable economic development, and healthier communities. Those states that lead on climate will lower energy costs for their consumers and create more good jobs for their residents, as evidenced by the states that led on climate during the first Trump administration.
Under the landmark Paris Agreement, the United States is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent to 52 percent by 2030. With the federal and state policies enacted as of June 2024, the United States is estimated to be on track to reduce this climate pollution by 32 percent to 43 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. Even without the incoming Trump administration’s problematic climate policies, this gap between the emissions reductions needed to stabilize the climate and the emissions cuts expected from current policy raised a call for more ambitious action at all levels of government. In December 2024, President Biden announced a new climate target for the United States: a 61 percent to 66 percent reduction in 2035 from 2005 levels in economywide net greenhouse gas emissions. Now, however, with the incoming Trump administration and other policymakers who are openly hostile to climate policy returning to the White House, and a federal judiciary that has already targeted environmental protections, it will once again fall upon state governments to carry the mantle of U.S. climate leadership. Local governments have a critically important role to play as well. States are no strangers to making game-changing moves on climate.
States created the nation’s first pollution control laws and clean energy standards and demonstrated continued climate leadership when former President Trump first tried to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement. State leadership on climate change, justice, and jobs laid much of the groundwork for the progress made by the federal government during the Biden-Harris administration. And state leadership continues to this day: For example, in 2024, Vermont made history as the first state to require the fossil fuel industry to pay for the cost of recovering from and preparing for extreme weather events driven by climate change. Also, in 2024, Washington state voters overwhelmingly affirmed the state’s Climate Commitment Act, aimed at achieving a 95 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury and investing billions in community solutions. And in 2023, Minnesota was one of the first states to require a comprehensive evaluation of the climate pollution associated with new transportation infrastructure projects.
In many ways, state governments are much better positioned today to continue advancing climate action than when Trump first took office in 2017. The U.S. Climate Alliance—a coalition of governors committed to continued climate progress—now boasts 24 member governors. In addition, there are now twice as many pro-clean energy state legislatures. As 2025 begins, states must be called upon to go further and faster by taking action on climate strategies across every sector of their economies. States that have adopted a robust agenda for 100 percent clean electricity must now do the same for transportation and built infrastructure. States must lead the way in industrial decarbonization and pollution reduction by supporting clean and globally competitive U.S. manufacturing industries. And states must advance policies that deliver an equitable clean energy transition, and make polluters pay to clean up their mess. T
his report identifies key policy advancements that are possible in a state-focused climate action race to the top, especially if states adopt the best-in-class climate policy ideas of other states in the power, transportation, buildings, and industrial sectors, as well as cross-cutting policies such as environmental justice and workforce development needed for a climate-ready workforce. In addition, this report also identifies best-in-class policies for states to hold polluters accountable and to finance an equitable clean energy transition.
Key policies for specific sectors include the following:
Power sector: delivering 100 percent clean electricity
Adopt and accelerate clean electricity standards
Hold utilities accountable via public utility commissions
Set energy storage targets and promote grid-enhancing technologies
Streamline clean energy and transmission siting, permitting, and interconnection
Support community solar
Transportation sector: accelerating the zero-emission vehicle market and build-out of zero-emission transportation infrastructure
Adopt Advanced Clean Cars II and Advanced Clean Trucks standards
Set and deliver on statewide vehicle miles traveled reduction targets
Integrate climate assessment in the transportation planning processes
Invest in transit infrastructure
Establish electric vehicle-ready requirements for buildings
Industry sector: supporting clean and competitive U.S. manufacturing industries
Adopt green public procurement policies
Incentivize industry to achieve emissions reductions
Establish industrial emission standards
Establish methane regulations for landfills
Divert food waste from landfills
Phase out products using hydrofluorocarbons
Finance conservation and climate-smart practices in agriculture
Buildings sector: reducing energy use and pollution from buildings
Adopt building performance standards
Adopt clean heat standards
Adopt appliance efficiency and emission standards
Enhance clean building codes
Enact state housing and land-use reforms
Decommission gas systems on a neighborhood scale
Accountability for polluters: holding the fossil fuel industry accountable and using market-based mechanisms Price pollution and reinvest in communities
Hold polluters legally accountable for cleaning up their mess
Environmental and economic justice: prioritizing equity and justice in climate policy
Target investments in disadvantaged communities
Deploy inclusive green finance
Require facilities to reduce local pollution in environmental justice communities
Engage community members in policy processes
Develop state-specific mapping tools
Workforce development: supporting a clean energy economy
Tie labor standards to clean economy investments
Support registered apprenticeship and preapprenticeship programs
Seek worker input for workforce development and transition
Past analysis has demonstrated that aggressive state action is a necessary complement to federal policies and can put the 2030 Paris climate target in reach, while even substantial progress on climate policy only at the federal level does not. The role of states is even more important in the absence of federal action.
State policies to deliver on climate, costs, justice, and jobs goals
States can reduce their emissions and energy costs while also increasing job numbers and economic opportunity for disadvantaged communities by adopting the following high-impact policies.
Power sector: Delivering 100 percent clean electricity
The build-out of clean, carbon-free electricity is the linchpin to delivering a low-cost clean energy economy. Clean electricity is important in reducing emissions from not only power plants, but also other sectors such as transportation, buildings, and heavy industry, which are increasingly powered by electricity. States that have in recent years experienced the highest levels of new clean energy deployment have delivered the greatest benefits for their residents’ electric bills.
States must lead the way in developing and implementing policies that will achieve 100 percent clean electricity as rapidly as possible, and with it, a more reliable, resilient, and lower-cost power sector. Already, 24 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have embraced 100 percent clean electricity as a goal. And 13 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have enacted policies requiring their electric utilities transition to 100 percent clean power. To realize this agenda, states should adopt policies such as clean electricity standards (CES), reforms to empower their public utility commissions (PUCs), energy storage targets, streamlined clean energy permitting, and support for community solar. The following policies support decarbonization of the electricity sector, including establishing interim targets and identifying opportunities to improve processes for generation, distribution, and accessibility to reliable power.
Adopt and accelerate clean electricity standards
States should adopt and accelerate timelines for performance standards requiring electric utilities to provide 100 percent carbon-free power to their customers. These standards, which first appeared in the early 1980s, require that a certain percentage of electricity that utilities produce comes from renewable or zero-carbon sources. These standards can take the form of renewable portfolio standards (RPS), which include renewable sources such as solar, wind, and hydropower, or CES policies, which include other low- or zero-emission sources such as nuclear energy and carbon capture and sequestration. Most states have also adopted an energy efficiency resource standard, which requires utilities to achieve greater energy efficiency. This policy goal could see renewed urgency given exploding utility load growth. Requiring utilities to use more clean electricity and achieve greater energy efficiency can also be accomplished through state PUC actions. These policies play an integral role in state efforts to diversify their energy mix, cut consumer costs, promote economic development, and reduce emissions.
The following states have led the way in setting 100 percent clean electricity standards, and their leadership can continue to inspire other states to adopt similar measures:
Hawaii in 2015 enacted the nation’s first law requiring its electric utilities to achieve 100 percent clean electricity, with an RPS law requiring 100 percent renewable energy by 2045.
Michigan’s clean energy future plan, signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) in 2023, includes an RPS requiring 60 percent renewable power by 2030, and a CES requiring 100 percent clean electricity by 2040. This legislative package also requires utilities to increase energy efficiency streamlines the permitting of new wind, solar, and storage projects sets a target for energy storage deployment expands access to rooftop solar and establishes a new office to support communities and workers in the energy transition.
Virginia’s Clean Economy Act, passed in 2020, made it the first Southern state to adopt a 100 percent CES.28 The state’s largest utilities must achieve 100 percent carbon-free energy generation by 2050.
Rhode Island has adopted the fastest 100 percent clean electricity requirement of any state, with an RPS requiring electric distribution companies and nonregulated power producers to supply 100 percent of their retail electric sales from renewable energy sources by 2033. This RPS has been updated twice since its first enactment in 2004.
Hold utilities accountable via public utility commissions
Most state PUCs were created in the early 1900s to regulate monopoly utilities spanning the electric, gas, water, telecommunications, rail, and other industries. Today, PUCs must embrace their role ensuring public utilities are acting in the public interest and addressing 21st-century grid challenges.33 In most states, PUCs hold strong regulatory authority that can be used to make progress for their states’ energy costs, climate goals, and grid reliability. At the same time, the statutory authority of many PUCs is outdated and may not fall short of ensuring PUCs can hold utilities accountable for incorporating decarbonization and environmental justice in their decision-making. PUC commissioners, and the governors, legislators, and voters who appoint them, should be held accountable for using these important bodies to modernize the power sector for a clean, reliable, and resilient energy future. In the least, PUCs should ensure their utilities account for the cost-saving effects of federal tax incentives in their planning. State PUCs must be proactive, aligned with the needs of a 21st-century grid, centering ratepayer cost concerns, and consistent with its state climate goals.
The following states have taken steps to require their utilities to support and align with state electrification and decarbonization goals:
Colorado was one of the first states to require its major utilities to factor in the social cost of carbon into their integrated resource plans. Today, the state’s PUC also has the authority to embed equity into its decision-making.
Maine revised the statutory authority of its PUC to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with state targets and requires state agencies to address equity concerns in environmental justice, front-line, and other vulnerable communities.
New Mexico’s Public Regulation Commission in 2020 rejected a gas power plant proposed by a local utility on the grounds that the plant was not in the public interest, in that it did not comply with state laws and policies requiring a shift to a decarbonized grid.
Oregon directed its PUC to integrate the state’s climate pollution reduction goals and promote equity by prioritizing vulnerable populations and affected communities. It also required the PUC to consider climate change impacts and establish a public process to address differential energy burdens and inequities of affordability and environmental justice, including rate design and other programs to mitigate energy costs.
Set energy storage targets and promote grid-enhancing technologies
Clean energy storage systems for renewable energy include technologies integrated into the electric grid to capture energy from solar, wind, and hydroelectric power and to store it to be used later. These technologies help balance energy supply and demand and ensure the grid works efficiently, as energy is released only when needed rather than lost during times of lower energy demand. Grid-enhancing technologies help increase the capacity of existing transmission lines and electric distribution systems—helping to deliver more clean power from where it is generated to where it is consumed. States should set clean energy storage targets and policies enabling grid-enhancing technologies to promote deploying and utilizing these technologies that align with and empower state clean energy goals.
The following states have set ambitious energy storage targets to help stabilize their electric grids in an efficient and timely manner:
California was the first state to adopt an energy storage procurement target. It initially required that the state’s investor-owned utilities procure 1.325 gigawatts (GW) of energy storage by 2020, before revising the goal to 1.825 GW by 2020. The California PUC approved a plan to set the state on a course of adding 86 GW of new resources to the grid by 2035.
Maryland is one of the most recent states to enact an energy storage target, with a goal to deploy 3 GW of storage capacity by 2033.
Montana’s House Bill 729, adopted in 2023, enables the state PUC to set cost-effectiveness criteria to allow utilities to deploy advanced transmission conductor technologies and recoup the cost via their ratepayers, similar to investments in new energy generation.
New York initially set a goal to procure 3 GW of energy storage by 2030 but most recently announced plans to double that goal to reach 6 GW by 2030.
Streamline clean energy and transmission siting, permitting, and interconnection
The current time frames to permit and build renewable energy and interconnect systems are substantially longer than it takes to develop these projects. States must update their siting and permitting policies to allow the greater United States to connect GWs of new clean energy and transmission projects to the grid, reduce power costs, and improve grid reliability nationwide while also ensuring meaningful community engagement. States should also partner with their regional grid operators to advocate for and expedite interconnection processes and transmission planning for new clean energy projects.
The following states have taken steps to reform their siting and permitting standards to accelerate their deployment of clean energy technologies:
Illinois set statewide renewable energy project siting standards that takes supremacy over unduly restrictive local decisions.
Michigan also accelerated procedures by giving the Michigan Public Service Commission authority over siting wind projects larger than 100 megawatts (MW) and solar and battery storage projects larger than 50 MW.
Minnesota consolidated certain permitting responsibilities into a single law and shortened the timeline for state regulators to review and permit clean energy projects.
Washington increased the efficiency of siting and permitting by directing agencies to conduct preproject evaluation and analysis, while also establishing and investing resources in a fully coordinated permit process administered by the state’s Department of Ecology.
Texas has demonstrated enormous success in rapidly deploying clean energy and transmission. Clean energy is deployed through a “connect and manage”-style interconnection system, while transmission is deployed through a competitive renewable energy zones program that connects renewable energy with transmission projects to serve customers.
Support community solar
Shared renewables, or community renewables, are a successful energy model allowing multiple customers to buy, lease, or subscribe to a portion of a shared green power system that is usually located away from their home or business. Community solar consists of a large-scale solar array connected to the local electricity grid. Through this energy system, local residents, businesses, organizations, and municipalities serviced by the cooperating utility company can subscribe to the solar farm and receive credits on their electricity bills. This provides numerous benefits, including lowering electricity bills, creating local jobs, and enhancing resilience during blackouts or weather events. States should develop strong incentive programs to expand their markets for community solar.
The following states have successfully integrated community solar into their electricity grids, and these best-practice models can be scaled to other states:
New York has the largest community solar market in the country. This is in part due to generous incentive programs and a large population of residents needing to depend on a community solar farm as a result of having unsuitable roofs or being among the 46 percent of New Yorkers who rent their home. Each project must have at least 10 subscribers, and each subscriber must be allocated at least 1,000 kilowatt-hours per year.
Minnesota’s utilities installed 20 times more capacity than initially planned due to local interest, and the state’s PUC has worked to create an accessible, well-incentivized community solar system for homeowners and renters across the state. A qualifying solar garden must have at least 25 subscribers per MW, and low- to moderate-income households must constitute 30 percent of subscribers of each garden’s generation capacity.
Massachusetts was one of the first states to offer community solar options, and the first and only state to offer solar renewable energy credits in community solar contracts. For all community solar projects, at least half of the project’s users must be low-income residential customers.
Reema Bzeih is Associate Director, State Climate Policy
Sam Ricketts is Senior Fellow
Shannon Baker-Branstetter is Senior Director, Domestic Climate and Energy Policy
