These Seven New Governors May Be The Biggest Election Boon For Climate And Clean Energy

Seven new governors have two things in common: they all pledged to move their states to 100 percent clean energy, and they all won.
Those seven victories may prove the biggest benefit to advanced energy technologies, according to analysts at Advanced Energy Economy, an advocacy group founded by California billionaire activist Tom Steyer.
"Tuesday night was a great night for advanced energy in the states with pro-advanced energy governors winning all across the country," said J.R. Tolbert, AEE's vice president of state policy, "and in the middle of the country, and not just on the coasts."
Those new governors are Janet Mills of Maine, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Tony Evers of Wisconsin, Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, Jared Polis of Colorado, and Steve Sisolak of Nevada.
If those governors-elect back their promises with policies, those states will join Hawaii and California in committing to 100 percent clean energy by 2050.
Some of the same candidates embraced caps on carbon emissions in their states.
"In Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, New Mexico there is a lot of chatter about the opportunity around a carbon cap for those states," Tolbert said in an exclusive members-only webinar that I unknowingly infiltrated yesterday, "as well as looking at Maine as a place where the governorship has shifted from someone who was very much anti-advanced energy to someone who is much more friendly to our technologies and to our industry."
Tolbert acknowledges that the governors-elect may not all keep those promises, or may face legislative opposition, but he counts it a victory anyway that seven gubernatorial candidates campaigned successfully on a clean-energy pledge.
"They won, and they won openly campaigning on increasing the share of advanced energy on their state’s grid," he said. "The political process at this point needs to play out, but recognizing that these candidates actually ran on this as a major piece of their platform, we expect over the next 18 months to two years to really see an uptick in governors pushing for 100 percent renewable energy."
Tolbert also described a few lesser-known victories:
Florida — Even though the clean-energy candidate, Democrat Andrew Gillum, appears to have lost the governorship in Florida, pending a recount, Tolbert considers Republican Ron DeSantis sympathetic to clean-energy technology. "We heard from Governor-elect DeSantis a desire, a willingness to work with corporate purchasers to ensure that there are more opportunities and more choices for the corporate procurement of renewable energy in the state," he said. "We also heard good things from him when it comes to the expansion of electric vehicles in the state."
Pennsylvania — Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf moved climate issues to the forefront of his agenda and campaign this year, Tolbert said. "We see opportunity around electric vehicles, around expanding utility investments in energy efficiency, as well as community solar."
Connecticut — Tolbert expects progress in Connecticut because he expects Governor-elect Ned Lamont to work better with the legislature. "The election of Ned Lamont means we have an opportunity when it comes to energy efficiency in that state, and opportunities as the governor is more closely aligned with where the legislature is in that state."
Kansas — Democrat Laura Kelly beat Republican Kris Kobach in an upset win that Tolbert expects to pay off after the new governor has an opportunity to appoint members to the state's Corporation Commission. "In Kansas the utilities had proposed energy efficiency programs in recent years that the commission had rejected. We expect that there will be new opportunities in Kansas because of the change in gubernatorial leadership."
Minnesota — The likely new speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Melissa Hortman, is an "advanced energy champion," according to Tolbert (I met her at the Paris Climate Conference, and I would say she's a "climate champion" too). Tolbert added: "We would expect that Rep. Hortman, who has a long history of working both sides of the aisle, would be able to create new opportunity in Minnesota and be able to move policy as well."
North Carolina — Republicans still control both the House and the Senate in North Carolina, but Democrats broke the Republican super majorities in both houses, which had weakened Gov. Cooper by allowing Republicans to override his vetoes. The newly empowered governor should have more luck fulfilling his newly announced climate and energy goals. Last month Cooper signed an executive order calling for reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, development of clean-energy technology and deployment of electric vehicles.