The United States may have a climate change denier in the White House come Jan. 20, but down-ballot returns reveal that tens of millions of Americans want those in power to take action to cut carbon emissions and otherwise protect the environment.
Some crucial climate wins from Nov. 5 include:
• Washington State voters rejected a measure to repeal the state’s landmark Climate Commitment Act and its flagship cap-and-invest program.
• Californians approved a US$10-billion climate mitigation and adaptation fund.
• Louisiana voters supported a constitutional amendment requiring state revenues from renewable energy to go to a coastal protection and restoration fund.
• Rhode Islanders voted in favour of a $53-million environmental bond, one-third of it earmarked for an offshore wind development by the Port of Davisville.
• The majority of South Dakotans rejected Referred Law 21—a complex ballot measure that would have allowed pipeline construction through their state to transport captured CO2 emissions from 57 midwestern ethanol producers to underground storage in North Dakota.
• In Honolulu, 58% approved a Climate Resiliency Fund using a dedicated 0.5% of property taxes.
Meanwhile, a survey of 1,000 registered voters released week last by the Solar Energy Industries Association showed that 78% of those who voted for Donald Trump in 2020 also supported President Joe Biden’s clean energy initiatives, Electrek reports.
“Every American wants lower electricity prices and greater energy security—and that’s precisely what federal clean energy policies are delivering,” said SEIA President and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “Politicians may talk and bluster as the election approaches, but the polling is clear, and a savvy lawmaker will not undermine the billions of dollars in clean energy investments that are flowing into their states and districts.”
Washington’s Climate Commitment Stands
Washington State’s 2021 Climate Commitment Act—upheld by 62% of its voters—aims to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and virtually eliminate them by 2050. It has generated revenues of more than US$2 billion that help fund public transit, new heat pumps and other household appliances, electric school buses, and climate resilience projects, reports Canary Media.
The rejected Initiative 2117 would also have banned any future cap-and-invest programs or carbon taxes.
Focusing on the benefits of the programs, rather than policy wonk-talk, is what won the day, Washington Governor Jay Inslee told Grist.
However, Washington State voters also approved Initiative 2066 to repeal newly-minted legal provisions to accelerate Puget Sound Energy’s transition off natural gas, reports the Washington State Standard. I-2066 also repeals incentives in the state energy code for builders who choose electric heat pumps over gas furnaces.
California Finances Climate Measures
In California, more than 58% of voters approved Proposition 4, a US$10-billion bond package to finance climate mitigation and adaptation. Roughly $1 billion of this will go to support the low-carbon energy transition—offshore wind, grid projects and technologies, and long-duration storage.
The remaining $9 billion-plus will go to climate adaptation efforts, writes Canary Media, including:
• $3.8 billion for drinking water and groundwater projects;
• $1.5 billion for wildfire and forest programs;
• $1.2 billion for coastal resilience against sea level rise;
• Roughly $500 million to reduce extreme heat exposure.
But 60% of Berkeley voters rejecting Measure GG, an initiative backed by both climate and labour groups that would have authorized a tax on natural gas used in buildings over 15,000 square feet. The money would have financed decarbonization efforts, with a particular focus on addressing the “equity burden,” reports the news non-profit Berkeleyside.
Renewable Energy Earnings Protect Louisiana Coastline
In Louisiana, 73% of voters approved a constitutional amendment that requires state revenue from renewable energy production to be deposited into the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Fund, reports Inside Climate News.
The Louisiana fund does “critical work in combating erosion made worse by climate change and thereby improving the sustainability of the state’s economy and the well-being of its people,” Joshua Basseches, assistant professor of public policy and environmental studies at Tulane University, told Grist. “The amendment is also an acknowledgement that renewable and alternative energy is the future, and that even though Louisiana is an oil and gas state, it wants a part in that future.”
Water, Land, and Wildlife Win
Other environmental measures won approval in both state and local jurisdictions.
In Suffolk County, New York, 72% approved Proposition 2, the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act. “This landmark victory for clean water will generate $4 billion to modernize wastewater infrastructure and protect Long Island’s waters from nitrogen pollution and $2 billion to protect clean drinking water by conserving open space and wildlife habitats,” writes the Nature Conservancy.
In Minnesota, 77% voted to continue diverting at least 40% of state lottery revenue until 2050 to an environment and nature resources trust fund, writes Grist. Approval will mean some $2 billion funnelled into the protection of land, water, and wildlife across the state over the next 25 years.
A trio of Northeastern Illinois counties approved ballot measures that will together deploy up to $609 million over 20 years to “expand protected lands, restore wildlife habitat, and improve park accessibility and engagement for all” in the region, writes the Illinois-based conservation organization Openlands.
In Colorado, 76% approved Proposition JJ, which will allow the state to redirect all sports betting tax revenue into water conservation projects. Since 2019, revenues-for-water had to be capped at $29 million, with any remainders returned to sports betting operators, writes the Colorado Sun.
Conservation-related ballot measures also passed in Maine, and Jasper County, South Carolina.
Important Climate Voices Elected
In the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate, important climate voices will include Nevada Democrat Jacky Rosen, who squeaked past Republican Sam Brown in the state’s junior senate race, with 47.8% of the vote. Where Rosen is “a clean energy enthusiast who helped pass the IRA and attempted to expand solar and geothermal energy,” Brown has been a vocal proponent of expanded fossil fuel development and cutting any and all “environmental departments and agencies,” says Heatmap.
In another very close Senate race, Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego is projected to win against Republican Kari Lake. Gallego, who likewise helped to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, is committed to strong climate action. Trump-acolyte Lake “has called climate change ‘fake science’ and told voters that she’s ‘not going to be afraid of the weather’,” writes Heatmap.
Although the Republicans look likely to retain their hold on the House of Representatives, there will be powerful climate champions in opposition, including Yassamin Ansari, who will represent Arizona’s 3rd District. As former vice mayor of Phoenix, Ansari’s work “focused on climate and housing issues in the country’s hottest major city,” writes Inside Climate .
Other climate champions in the House include Democrat Sarah Elfreth, now representing the 3rd District of Maryland, who is a “fierce supporter of the environmental movement, passing legislation to protect communities from forever chemicals, protect wetlands, and further the renewable energy transition,” Inside Climate writes.
Another is Wesley Bell, who has vowed to make environmental justice and climate action top priorities when he goes to Washington as representative for Missouri’s 1st District.
Climate also proved a winner in the North Carolina race for governor, with Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein solidly beating Republican Mark Robinson. Six weeks after Hurricane Helene made landfall, 54.9% of North Carolinians cast their vote for Stein.
“In my first term as Attorney General, I was compelled to time and again challenge the Trump administration’s efforts to weaken the EPA enforcement powers, whether it was winning clean power cases or fighting for the clean car standards or calling for limits on greenhouse gas emissions, or being part of a successful coalition that stopped efforts to allow oil and gas drilling off of our beautiful coast here in North Carolina,” Stein said at an August “green-tie” event hosted by the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters.
Robinson, who has called climate change “junk science,” described any failure to develop fossil fuels as “an affront to God” and vowed to keep the “globalist climate change cabal” in “chains,” took 40% of the vote.
Climate also won big in Phoenix’s mayoral race, with incumbent Kate Gallego trouncing Republican contender Matt Evans, 61.7% to 38.3%. On the job since 2019 and one of America’s youngest mayors, Gallego “has made sustainability core to her policies,” reports Business Green.
Under Gallego’s administration, the desert city of 1.65 million has reduced per capita greenhouse gas emissions by 20.5% from 2012 levels, prioritized heat adaptation and mitigation efforts, and worked hard to diversify and decarbonize its transportation system.
Latest results also suggest that Portland, Oregon’s new city council will tilt strongly progressive, with the executive director of an environmental justice group, Candace Avalos, and a climate-focused energy economist, Mitch Green, among those forecast to win, reports the Portland Mercury.
“The next city council will make decisions about the fate of the Portland Clean Energy Fund, which allocates money for clean energy projects, and will weigh whether or not to transition away from fossil fuel infrastructure—namely, the Zenith Energy crude oil shipment facility and rail line in northwest Portland,” writes Heatmap.
