{"id":322459,"date":"2026-11-06T15:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T15:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/322459\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T15:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T15:46:10","slug":"midterms-could-boost-clean-energy-in-wisconsin-pennsylvania-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/322459\/","title":{"rendered":"Midterms Could Boost Clean Energy in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThis story was originally published by\u00a0Grist<\/a>. Sign up for Grist\u2019s\u00a0weekly newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Trump was elected both in 2016 and 2024, promising to make the federal government hostile to climate action, many climate advocates insisted that state and local governments<\/a> would take up the mantle of pushing for clean energy<\/a>. That\u2019s the thesis of the \u201cAmerica Is All In<\/a>\u201d coalition, which brings together cities and states that have vowed to uphold America\u2019s \u201cclimate commitments \u2026 [i]n the absence of federal leadership.\u201d The unspoken caveat in these claims is that the states leading the way on climate policy are concentrated in a few liberal parts of the country, like New England and the West Coast.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Democratic Party\u2019s historic victory in this week\u2019s midterm elections<\/a> could change that. Democrats have secured control of both state legislative chambers and the governor\u2019s mansion \u2014 also known as a \u201ctrifecta\u201d \u2014 in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, three states that have spent years or decades under Republican or divided control. The three states have also lagged on support for clean energy. Democrats also restored trifectas in Minnesota, Michigan, and Nevada this week, but those are states where they last had unified control earlier this decade.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is impossible to overstate how monumental these results are,\u201d said David Weiskopf, the senior policy director at Climate Cabinet, a nonprofit that works to elect climate-focused candidates and pass state climate policy. He said that the six states where Democrats have secured trifectas would be one of the world\u2019s largest emitters if they made up their own country, rivaling Canada and Saudi Arabia.\u00a0 \u201cThis is just a massive opportunity to make progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHere\u2019s how the election could open up the floodgates for new climate policy in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Arizona.<\/p>\n

\t\tWISCONSIN\t<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tConstruction on a Meta data center in March in Beaver Dam, Wisc. The state\u2019s legislature failed this year to pass a law that would require data centers to source their power from clean sources.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoe Timmerman \/ Wisconsin Watch via Getty Images (via Grist)<\/p>\n

\n\tCompared to its neighbors in the Upper Midwest, Wisconsin has been far less ambitious when it comes to ditching fossil fuels in its power sector. While Michigan and Minnesota have both passed laws that mandate that the states get all their power from clean sources by 2040, Wisconsin set a measly 10 percent renewable electricity standard<\/a> more than two decades ago. It blew past that goal but never set a new target. Unlike most other states, it doesn\u2019t even require utilities to plan for what kinds of power plants they want to build. The state gets a larger share of its electricity from coal<\/a> than its immediate neighbors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tRenewable energy advocates in the Badger State believe they can make some short-term gains with Democrats\u2019 first trifecta since 2010. Erik Kanter, the policy director for the nonprofit Clean Wisconsin, said he believes that the new legislature can agree on the \u201clow-hanging fruit\u201d of making utilities plan for the future, which he said will nudge more of them to build renewables rather than extending the lifespans of gas and coal plants. The Wisconsin legislature failed this year<\/a> to pass a law that would require data centers to source their power from clean sources, and Kanter expects such a measure to pass once Democrats take control. The legislature will also likely renew programs like Knowles-Nelson, a longstanding fund for parks and ecosystem preservation, which once enjoyed bipartisan approval but has lost support from Republicans<\/a> in recent years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWeiskopf, of Climate Cabinet, believes that even more ambitious moves are in the offing. He expects Wisconsin\u2019s new class of legislators to pursue a 100 percent clean electricity standard, filling what he calls a \u201cWisconsin-sized hole\u201d in the Upper Midwest. Not only would that help to phase out coal in the state, it would also make it easier for neighboring states to meet their climate goals, since the whole region shares the same interconnected power grid.<\/p>\n

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\t\tPENNSYLVANIA\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe NRG Station of SEPTA\u2019s Broad Street Line in Philadelphia. Democrats in the Pennsylvania legislature intend to pass a rescue package for the state\u2019s public transit systems.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEmilee Chinn \/ Getty Images (via Grist)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Pennsylvania Senate has long been known to Democrats as the place where climate policy goes to die. Even though the party managed to flip the lower house of the legislature a few years ago, Republican leaders in the upper chamber often refused to bring climate bills to a vote<\/a>. The Keystone State\u2019s status as a large producer of both natural gas and coal also made it difficult to secure agreements within the Democratic Party<\/a> on clean energy proposals.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou don\u2019t want to let yourself fully imagine what it can be, because you\u2019ve been let down in the past,\u201d said Lindsey Williams, a state senator who represents a swath of the Pittsburgh metro area. \u201cNow we\u2019re in that moment of, wow, there\u2019s so many things that we can accomplish.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEvery year since 2019, Williams has introduced a bill<\/a> that would establish mandatory energy and water efficiency standards for appliances like ovens and showerheads, a measure she said could save consumers millions of dollars a year. The legislation has never moved forward \u2014\u00a0but she thinks it will in next year\u2019s session.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tShe hopes Democrats will use their first trifecta since 1993 to advance a full-scope climate agenda. In addition to passing laws that would allow community solar and warehouse rooftop solar<\/a>, Democratic lawmakers also want to pass a funding package for struggling mass transit systems like Philadelphia\u2019s. The $1.5 billion infusion<\/a> would help prevent the transit \u201cdeath spiral\u201d for those systems and would reduce reliance on gasoline-powered cars.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe state\u2019s reelected centrist governor, Josh Shapiro, appears to be on board with at least some of these proposals. Although he withdrew the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative<\/a>, a Northeast-wide carbon pricing system<\/a>, he has promised to create a similar cap-and-trade<\/a> system for Pennsylvania itself if he can get legislative support. He has also named funding for mass transit as a leading item on his agenda<\/a> for the new legislative session next year. But Democrats will have to be careful: While they will now control both chambers, they\u2019ll have slim majorities in each, and may have just a narrow two-year window to pass climate policy before one flips back.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe need to be brave and lead,\u201d said Williams. \u201cYes, what are the low-hanging fruits, but what are the big ambitious things that we can get done this session?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tARIZONA\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAlfalfa fields at the Fondomonte farm in Butler Valley, Ariz. Democrats in the state legislature plan to pass a bill that would crack down on rural groundwater pumping.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCaitlin O\u2019Hara for The Washington Post via Getty Images (via Grist)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe last time Democrats had a trifecta in the Grand Canyon State was in 1966, decades before the general public was even aware of global warming. The state has ample sunshine and wind, so its renewable energy industry has grown quickly over recent years<\/a>, and its grid is cleaner than in regions like the Midwest. Furthermore, the many new-built suburbs of the Phoenix metroplex tend to be heated with electricity rather than natural gas<\/a>. Yet Republicans in the state legislature have all but banned climate and environmental policy, prohibiting the state government from regulating greenhouse gas emissions<\/a> or energy usage, and numerous climate and water bills have failed in recent years.<\/p>\n

\n\tLauren Kuby, a longtime Democratic legislator who represents the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, says she and her colleagues have a long wish list that spans several issues. Their first order of business is to reform the Arizona Corporation Commission<\/a>, the state\u2019s utility regulator, which Kuby says has been slow to embrace new technologies like solar and wind even as developers seek to build more of them. Legislators want to pass a law that would direct the commission to make utilities invest in solar, batteries, and \u201cvirtual power plants,\u201d or networks of homes and businesses that coordinate their energy usage. As part of the reform, they might even change the commission\u2019s name, taking out the \u201ccorporation\u201d and replacing it with \u201cpublic utilities.\u201d The two Democrats who appear set to win seats<\/a> on the commission will make these reforms easier to push through.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe legislature could also break long-standing logjams<\/a> on the crucial issue of water \u2014 a scarce resource in a desert state where climate change<\/a> is worsening droughts. Kuby and other senators have been trying for years to pass a bill that would regulate groundwater pumping<\/a> in the state\u2019s rural areas. These areas are home to massive dairies and alfalfa farms like Riverview<\/a> and the Saudi-backed Fondomonte<\/a>, which have been blamed for sinking land and dried-up residential wells. The bill has failed in several legislative sessions<\/a>, but Kuby believes that some form of regulation can pass in the coming year, bringing an end to the water free-for-all in the desert areas outside Phoenix.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat has been languishing and has not been heard in the legislature, even though we have agreement from a lot of Republicans on water and environmental protection,\u201d said Kuby. Of the trifecta, she said, \u201cIt\u2019s a game-changer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by\u00a0Grist. Sign up for Grist\u2019s\u00a0weekly newsletter here. When Trump was elected both in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31283,1125,264,18089,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-322459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-2026-midterms","tag-clean-energy","tag-climate-change","tag-green-energy","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}