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Friday, November 23rd, 2018

States lead the way on pivotal shift toward renewable energy after midterms

Author:     Mark Hand
Source:     Think Progress
Publication Date:     NOV 18, 2018, 9:50 AM
 Link: States lead the way on pivotal shift toward renewable energy after midterms
Stephan:   States and local communities have to actually govern. The results can be terrible, consider Sam Brownback of Kansas, or productive of wellbeing, Jerry Brown in California. At that level of governance, you can't just talk, you actually have to do things. In Blue value states, we have some good news. Addressing climate change and ending carbon energy are beginning to break through the barrier against wellbeing created when profit is the only social priority.

Solar wind installation

The shift in the political balance at the state level following the midterm elections will produce far more benefits for the renewable energy industry — at least in the next few years — than the Democratic takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives, according to clean energy experts.

Voters in several states elected Democratic governors in previously Republican-controlled states, shakeups that could lead to a more rapid advancement of clean energy policies. The Democratic Party also seized control of seven state legislatures, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures, a shift that could make it easier to pass laws favorable to renewable energy.

Speaking Friday at a clean energy forum in Washington, D.C., Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), a nonprofit trade group that advocates for the growth of renewable energy, referred to the results of the November 6 elections as a “seismic shift” in the political landscape.

But it’s primarily at the state level, according to Wetstone, that the political […]

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