President Donald Trump openly disdains any effort to fight what he calls the “big hoax” — climate change. During his first term, he eviscerated environmental regulations and yanked the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement. On the campaign trail, he vowed to slash climate spending and increase domestic oil and gas production, even though it had already reached record-high levels under President Joe Biden. He despises wind power and dislikes electric vehicles — unless they’re made by his new buddy, Elon Musk.
None of this bodes well for plans to ditch fossil fuels in order to slow climate change, or for communities and ecosystems facing global warming-exacerbated disaster, whether through extreme heat, destructive wildfires or devastating flooding. With a GOP-dominated Congress and a Supreme Court hostile to environmental protection, it’s likely that most federal efforts to alleviate the planetary crisis will languish, at best, over the next four years.
Yet hope remains, because, for the past two decades, state and local governments — particularly in the Western U.S. — have taken the lead in combating climate change, even as national leaders and agencies have fallen behind. And their policies will continue, with the states gearing up to defend them if needed from Republican attacks. Trump wants to revoke the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided generous funding for climate programs, but much of that money has already been distributed, and many states are implementing funding mechanisms of their own. Washington’s cap-and-invest auctions, for example, have generated more than $2 billion for climate and air-quality projects, and California voters just passed a $10 billion climate bond measure.
Net utility-scale electricity
generation by source
The administration’s anti-environment initiatives will still have serious consequences, some of them possibly catastrophic, especially for public lands. But the energy transition and other efforts to fight global warming are likely to continue regardless of who is president. In fact, the next four years may demonstrate that the real power in this struggle is local, in towns, counties, states and individuals.
Alaska isn’t big on climate-friendly policies, but it is slowly developing its renewable resources while remote villages use solar, wind and small hydropower to displace diesel generation.
Washington’s landmark Climate Commitment Act, which has a carbon cap-and-invest program to slash greenhouse gas emissions, has already raised some $2 billion for climate-resilience and clean energy projects.
Oregon eliminated coal-generated electricity and passed dozens of climate-friendly policies, including strong greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and electric vehicle rebates.
Although Idaho notably disdains climate and clean energy-related policies, its electricity sector is coal-free, and much of its power comes from relatively clean hydroelectric dams. It’s also a pioneer in geothermal district heating, and the city of Boise hopes to be carbon-neutral by 2050.
Nevada substantially reduced its use of coal-generated electricity over the last decade, and its new Solar for All program provides $156 million in federal funding to help low- and moderate-income residents access rooftop and community solar.
California has a slew of climate- friendly laws on the books, from ambitious clean energy standards and a ban on hydraulic fracturing to phasing out gasoline-powered cars. In November, voters approved a $10 billion bond issue to fund climate-related and clean energy projects.
Montana, a large coal producer, remains obstinately hostile toward climate action, but its Supreme Court recently ruled that the state’s fossil fuel-friendly policies violate residents’ constitutional right to a clean environment, a decision that may force it to change its ways.
Even though it’s the nation’s leading source of carbon-intensive coal, Wyoming is becoming a wind and solar energy hotspot: Gov. Mark Gordon, a semi-moderate Republican, pursues an all-of-the-above carbon-negative energy strategy that retains fossil fuels but uses carbon capture.
Utah lawmakers are famously fossil-fuel friendly. Nevertheless, the state is becoming a clean energy powerhouse, with advanced geothermal and solar comprising a growing share of its electricity consumption.
Colorado’s Clean Heat Law requires natural gas utilities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and so Xcel Energy has launched an incentive program encouraging household electrification and efficiency upgrades. Recently more electric vehicles were sold in the state than in California.
Despite the Republican-dominated Arizona Legislature’s determination to ignore global warming, developers and utilities are installing utility-scale solar and battery energy storage and phasing out coal-burning power.
New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act, which requires utilities to start getting more of their power from carbon-free sources, provides financial assistance for communities affected by coal plant and mine closures.
SOURCES: Energy Information Administration, Clean Energy States Alliance, U.S. Climate Alliance, RMI.
Data visualization by Marissa Garcia/High Country News
This article appeared in the February 2025 print edition of the magazine with the headline “The climate fight endures.”
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