Climate backsliding comes for blue-state governors

When President Donald Trump returned to office, Democratic governors from the biggest and bluest states pledged to be bulwarks against the dismantling of Biden-era climate and clean energy policies.

But the Democrats’ fervor is showing cracks — as they face legal limits, shape-shifting political realities and economic headwinds.

Take Pennsylvania, where Gov. Josh Shapiro dismayed his green-minded supporters this week by agreeing to withdraw from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the Northeast’s carbon cap-and-trade program. Shapiro, who’s long been cool toward RGGI, abandoned the climate program as part of a deal to end a months-long budget impasse with Republicans, Adam Aton reports.

“It is time now to look forward, and I'm looking forward to aggressively pushing for policies to create more jobs in the energy sector, bring more clean energy onto our grid and reduce the cost of energy for all Pennsylvanians,” the potential 2028 presidential contender said before signing the budget deal.

Meanwhile, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul approved a natural gas pipeline that Trump supports and signed off on a deal to keep a gas-fueled cryptocurrency mining operation running for five more years, Marie French and Mona Zhang report. “We need to govern in reality,” she said, adding that there’s a “war against clean energy from Washington Republicans, including our New York delegation.”

That’s in contrast to an action Hochul took late last year, when she signed the Climate Change Superfund Act, which requires energy-sector carbon polluters to pay for infrastructure improvements over the next 25 years.

More compromises on climate policies may be coming, even after Democrats scored sweeping wins last week in Virginia’s and New Jersey’s gubernatorial elections. That’s because the political balancing act of addressing cost-of-living problems, economic growth and climate policy is getting more complicated, not less.

Democrats recalibrate
California Gov. Gavin Newsom straddles sides of that dynamic. He made a rockstar appearance this week at the United Nations climate talks in Brazil, declaring that he and other supporters of climate action are “at peak influence because of the flatness of the surrounding terrain with the Trump administration and all the anxiety.”

But Newsom faces grumbling at home about how California’s Democratic leaders are standing up for the environment — or not.

The party has retreated on a cap on oil industry profits and clean fuel mandates, seemingly spooked by the potential for higher fuel prices if refineries close. And Newsom’s administration has tried to keep open one key refinery in Northern California.

The next big decision for a Democratic governor may come in Massachusetts. Lawmakers there are advancing, on a bipartisan basis, legislation to significantly water down the state’s major climate commitments, including making its 2030 emissions targets nonbinding and slashing money for energy efficiency.

***

A large cooling tower and other buildings at the Salem nuclear power plant known as Artificial Island.

A large cooling tower and other buildings at the Salem nuclear power plant known as Artificial Island can be seen near a farm in Lower Alloways Creek Township, New Jersey.

A bill in New Jersey would create a state-backed incentive program to build new nuclear reactors to meet energy demand.

Power Switch - POLITICO

 

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