Texas gets 37% of its electricity from clean energy. Washington’s carbon market – now linked with California’s – has put more than $5 billion back into communities. And Big Oil executives are asking Congress, the courts, and statehouses to make sure no jury ever holds them accountable.

I just got back from Climate Week in New York energized and ready to continue to work like hell to build a clean energy future alongside all of the incredible people I got to speak with across Manhattan. Here are some of my biggest takeaways from the week, plus a few climate innovations on my radar back home.

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This is a moment for boldness, not timidity, for governors and state lawmakers

In the absence of federal leadership, governors have an obligation to deliver on climate, clean energy, and affordability.

My friend Wade Crowfoot (who is the California Secretary for Natural Resources) said it really well: “We’re not waiting for permission from our national governments or the United Nations to take action to improve people’s lives. Simply put, the world can’t wait.”

One top-of-mind example: During Climate Week, Gov. Gavin Newsom authorized California to move forward on linking its cap-and-invest program with Washington’s.

In 2021, I was proud to sign Washington’s Climate Commitment Act into law. The principle is simple: the state’s biggest polluters have to cut their emissions or pay for them. Since 2023, that market has raised more than $5 billion, and every dollar goes back into Washington communities: electric school buses, heat pumps, solar, EV rebates, and more.

Why does linking our market with California and Québec matter? Because bigger carbon markets are steadier ones. Stability gives businesses the long-term certainty they need to invest in the big, capital-intensive projects that actually cut climate pollution.

This a win for Washington, California, and Québec. And it’s proof that subnational governments (I prefer “supernational”) don’t have to wait on DC to move further and faster on climate change. As former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm remarked, “They can build policy from the bottom up — and then link those policies together.”

State leadership like this is exactly why I founded the State Power Project, where my team and I work alongside state leaders to enact and implement policies that deliver a more affordable and prosperous clean energy economy.

The market has already decided on clean energy, and we should be bullish about it

Demand for power is surging like we haven’t seen in decades. Families are opening utility bills with dread. Solar, wind, and batteries are the answer to both problems, delivering more power for less money – faster than anything else on the table. I was able to sit down with Ali Velishi at MS NOW while I was in New York and talk about why this isn’t ideology – it’s just reality. The cost of solar has gone down 80% in the last decade and wind has come down 40% in the last 12 years, as two strong examples of how things have shifted dramatically in a short time.

And Texas is a perfect example of why we should be bullish on clean energy. No one can look at Texas and think that the reason it gets 37% of its electricity from solar, wind and geothermal – and is set to surpass California on battery storage – is part of a political agenda, as Heather O’Neill from Advanced Energy United pointed out during our conversation at Canary Media’s summit at Climate Week.

It’s the market and the market has already decided: clean energy is the most available, cheapest source of electricity. Governors and other state leaders shouldn’t be shy about pointing that out to voters.

And we have to actually build this clean energy future quickly and at scale. Wollemi Capital hosted a fascinating conversation on the status of clean energy investing and climate buildout. As ​Tim Bishop (Wollemi’s co-founder & co-CEO) pointed out, there are concrete, world-class examples of rapid, large-scale deployment that the US can draw from to overcome complex regulatory and permitting environments.

But Big Oil executives think they’re above the law – and we should all be madder than hell

A major highlight of my week was joining the rousing No Immunity for Big Oil event, hosted by the Center for Climate Integrity and the Union of Concerned Scientists. And I was glad to share the stage with Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones, Angela Kai (former Executive Assistant Attorney General for New Jersey), Dr. Paula Garcia (Executive Director at UCS), and (journalist at Heated).

Today, Big Oil companies are trying to shield themselves from any accountability in climate-related lawsuits using four nefarious strategies:

• The courts: For example, in the Supreme Court case Suncor v. Boulder. The City of Boulder, Colorado wants to hold Exxon and Suncor “accountable for their decades of deception about their products’ role in climate change and to make them pay for the climate damages.” Big Oil wants these types of lawsuits to be declared unconstitutional.

• Congress: Federal legislation (the so-called Stop Climate Shakedowns Act / H.R. 8330) is moving through Congress right now, which would grant sweeping legal immunity to oil companies from past, present, and future climate claims.

• State legislatures: Similar immunity bills have passed in Republican-led state legislatures, including Tennessee, Louisiana, Utah, Oklahoma, and Iowa.

• Attacking climate science: As Dr. Garcia said, there is “a robust body of evidence that we can bring to the courtroom, that we can trace emissions back to the impacts that people are experiencing today, here and now.” But Big Oil is attempting to remove this attribution science from federal judicial reference manuals.

I’m mad as hell about this. In August, devastating fires broke out in my home state of Washington and, according to the most recent data, more than 700 homes were lost. Severe drought, low snowpack, and heat may not have ignited the flames, but these hallmarks of climate change – driven by the fossil fuel industry – made the fires bigger, faster, and more destructive.

In Spokane, I met two brothers whose homes sat directly across the street from each other. Both homes, like those hundreds of others, have been destroyed. One of the brothers, a Spokane firefighter, learned that the fire was approaching their neighborhood and knew his daughter was still at home. He raced to reach her, but police had closed the area and tried to turn him back. He finally made it through just as the flames were crossing the street toward his house. He found his daughter downstairs, curled up in a blanket. When she saw him, she said, “Dad, I was getting ready to die.”

I have thought a lot about her terror and his courage, and I contrast them with the cowardice of these Big Oil executives. These companies rake in billions selling dirty, dangerous fossil fuels and now they refuse to face an American jury, refuse to accept responsibility, and refuse to let their neighbors judge them in court.

If fossil fuel companies have complied with the law, they should have no reason to fear presenting their defense before a jury. We all should stand against this because no one – no one – should be above the law.

Rep. Jones left us with this quote from Frederick Douglass he recites every day on his way into the Tennessee State Capitol and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since:

“Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are people who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, but it must be a struggle, because find out what a people will submit to, and you have found the exact amount of injustice that will be imposed upon them. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

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Watts on my radar

I’ll Raise My Glass to This

If you like beer and care about climate change, this machine’s for you. Before I headed to New York for Climate Week, I got to meet with Michael Weaver in Snoqualmie, WA. Michael is the founder and CEO of Polar Defense, which has a machine called Bubblz. When I asked about the machine, he told me, “We extract [CO₂] from the atmosphere, the machine processes it, then we liquefy it and bring it to breweries to inject into their process to replace CO₂ that’s derived from fossil sources.”

Then, I spoke with David Skiba (founder and head brewer at No Boat Brewing Company) to ask how they use this CO₂. He explained: “CO₂ touches our product at almost every level, and it’s always been sourced from fossil fuels up to this point. Now we get to use direct air capture CO₂. We basically use it to create a clean, delicious product.” Cheers to climate innovation right here in the Evergreen State.

The Climate Crisis Is Bigger Than Your Footprint

At Climate Week, I also had a fantastic time sitting down with , , , and to talk about Leah’s new book, The Carbon Wave: A Story of Democracy, Parenthood, and the Race to Protect Our Planet. You can read an excerpt from the book here.

I love this line from Leah:

“Rather than thinking of a single person leaving a footprint in the sand, think of waves in the ocean. These waves are made by strong, sustained winds blowing in the same direction. Over generations, these waves are built as thousands of people work together to create change, adding to the efforts of those before them. And just as waves wash away footprints on a beach, our carbon waves can erase our carbon footprints.”

Innovation on the Water

Earlier this week, I caught a glimpse of the Maersk Trieste tanker on Elliot Bay here in Washington. It’s been equipped with “bound4blue” eSAILs, which use suction wind power that can reduce fuel usage and carbon pollution by double digits in some conditions.

Clean energy represents more than 90% of the new energy capacity added to the U.S. grid so far this year. It’s the cheapest, most readily-available energy – largely because it has no fuel cost.

What is fuel cost? Every time you flip on a light switch, you’re relying on a power plant somewhere that had to pay for two very different things to make that electricity: the cost of building the plant, and the cost of running it – the fuel. That second cost – the “fuel cost” – often matters most to your wallet. It matters more each day, as America’s appetite for electricity, and the fuel to generate it, keeps rising. And the arithmetic is the same whether you vote red or blue.

Here’s the simple version

A gas plant, a coal plant, an oil-fired generator – all of them have to keep buying fuel, month after month, year after year, at whatever price the international market happens to be charging that day. When a war disrupts a shipping lane, when a winter storm freezes a pipeline, when a heat wave or cold snap spikes demand across three time zones at once, the price of that fuel can jump – and utilities pass most of that cost straight through to youl. For example, when in early 2026 Winter Storm Fern caused strained gas supplies in the Mid-Atlantic U.S., wholesale electricity costs in the region soared to over $1,000 per megawatt-hour – more than 20 times the typical price.

Solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal plants, hydroelectric dams, and nuclear reactors don’t have that problem. The wind is free. The sun is free. The heat coming out of the earth and the water flowing through a dam are free. Even nuclear fuel, while not free, is a tiny fraction of what it costs to run a nuclear plant. The same principle applies to vehicle costs: drivers of electric vehicles have zero fuel cost, while drivers of cars with internal combustion engines have to pay to buy gasoline, which may soon jump to $6 a gallon, due to Trump’s blunder in Iran.

This isn’t a talking point. It’s arithmetic.

Once you’ve built a clean energy project, the ongoing cost of keeping it running barely moves, year after year, regardless of what’s happening in global commodity markets. That’s not true of a power system built mostly on things you have to keep buying and burning, like gas, coal and oil.

Think of it like the difference between owning your home outright and renting month-to-month. The homeowner’s costs are mostly locked in. The renter is exposed to whatever the market does next. Most of America’s electricity grid, for the better part of a century, has been “renting” its power one fuel shipment at a time. Clean energy resources are the closest thing the grid has to home ownership.

“Most of America’s electricity grid, for the better part of a century, has been ‘renting’ its power one fuel shipment at a time. Clean energy resources are the closest thing the grid has to home ownership.”

This matters more now than it used to, for a reason that has nothing to do with climate politics: electricity demand in the United States is growing again, after two decades of being roughly flat. Data centers, factories returning from overseas, and the ongoing shift toward electric vehicles and heat pumps are all adding more load onto the grid. Data centers, in particular, are expected to grow from using approximately 4% of U.S. electricity to accounting for nearly 20% of U.S. power consumption by 2035. Meanwhile, the rush of new data centers that are using off-grid natural gas power has pushed the cost of electricity produced with gas, which currently provides 40% of U.S. power, to its highest level in nearly two decades.

Insulating the grid from the next price spike

Every new megawatt of demand that gets served by a fuel-hungry power plant is another megawatt exposed to the next fuel price spike. Every new megawatt served by a low-fuel-cost clean resource is a megawatt that’s largely insulated from it. Clean energy is no-fuel-cost energy.

Now, none of this means clean energy is a free lunch. Building wind, solar, geothermal and nuclear capacity costs real money up front, and integrating variable renewable energy resources requires investment in transmission lines, energy storage, and modernized distribution infrastructure. But these are solvable challenges – and the market is already addressing them. Even accounting for those up-front costs, new utility-scale solar comes in at $40–$98 per megawatt-hour over its lifetime, against $51–$129 for a new gas plant. That’s a big part of why clean energy technologies such as solar and storage make up more than 90% of the new energy added to the grid so far this year.

A grid with more low-fuel-cost resources leaves ratepayers with less exposure to price spikes from factors such as foreign wars, weather disasters, rising demand and commodity speculators. Low-fuel-cost energy resources take a big, unpredictable variable off the table for the families and businesses who have too often been picking up the tab.

As policymakers, utilities and grid operators work to meet rising energy demand, we’d all do well to remember that clean energy is no-fuel-cost energy. And building more of it is essential for a more affordable, secure and prosperous America.

Watts on my radar

Notes from the Electric Era by : “No, the Democrats’ Big Climate Law is Not Dead.”

“We found that the [Inflation Reduction Act] helped drive $185 billion in private investment into building factories that make solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles. And here’s the amazing thing most people don’t know: nine in ten of those facilities are still getting built, under a president who promised to kill them.”

Read more from Leah Stokes →

: How to Respond to Disinformation about Clean Energy, At Scale featuring Leah Qusba of GoodPower

“Climate campaigners are extremely familiar with large-scale, organized misinformation campaigns. But in recent years, misinformation about climate solutions, specifically about clean energy, has grown almost as ubiquitous... An organization called GoodPower is attempting to push back against this tide of slop.”

Listen to the interview with Dave Roberts →

Energy Empire with : Jennifer Granholm’s Data Center Playbook for Governors

“Data centers have become one of the most charged political issues in the country, and it cuts across both parties. Electricity bills are climbing, 36 states are electing governors who will have to answer for it, and the question is the same in red states and blue: how do you welcome the investment without handing residents the bill?”

Listen or watch what Sec. Granholm had to say →

Canary Media: Solar-Plus-Storage Is Having a Global Growth Spurt

“Investors spent a record amount in the first half of 2026 on projects that combine renewable energy — mostly solar — with batteries.”

Read more from →

Going to Climate Week NYC? Join me

Here are a few of the events I’ll be at:

Rural America & The Clean Energy Transition

Tuesday, September 22

This election season, energy affordability is a headline issue for voters, who will soon be casting ballots in three dozen governors’ races across the country. Canary Media and Advanced Energy United are hosting a panel with Jay Inslee and Heather O’Neill to share their insights and stories from meetings with gubernatorial candidates and incumbents this election cycle.

Learn more →

No Immunity for Big Oil: How Communities are Standing Up to the Fossil Fuel Industry’s Attacks on Science, Accountability, and the Law

Tuesday, September 22

As communities advance legal and legislative efforts to make Big Oil companies pay for climate damages, the fossil fuel industry is pulling every lever to escape accountability: lobbying Congress and state legislatures for broad legal immunity, attacking climate science and judicial education projects, and urging the U.S. Supreme Court to stop state and local climate deception lawsuits against oil majors before they can reach trial.

On the eve of the U.S. Supreme Court arguments, join a panel of climate accountability leaders to learn about these brazen efforts and how communities are fighting to protect their right to hold Big Oil accountable.

Learn more →

Americans are facing rising energy bills while witnessing a presidential administration with a vendetta against the cheapest, fastest-to-install form of energy. It’s a bizarre mix: President Trump tried to shut down an 80 percent complete wind energy project that would have powered 350,000 homes, while forcing American ratepayers to pay $180 million to keep a zombie coal plant alive.

I’ve heard the question repeatedly in recent months: With an administration so hostile to affordable clean energy, where can Americans turn for hope? The answer is in the states, the “laboratories of democracy” that are continuing to lead on clean affordability energy today, despite what’s happening in Washington, D.C. Try as he might, President Trump cannot stop state progress on clean energy.

States have long been at the forefront in America’s energy policy innovation, and amidst skyrocketing utility bills their leadership is now more important than ever. Iowa in the 1980s passed the first renewable energy standard. Texas in the 2000s enacted policies that have made it the national leader in low-cost clean energy deployment. And nine years ago, I joined the governors of California and New York to launch the U.S. Climate Alliance — a bipartisan alliance of over 20 states advancing a shared clean energy agenda, regardless of what happens in Washington, D.C.

In recent years, when federal policy has lurched from the neglect of Trump’s first term, to the historic investments of the Biden years, to an even more hostile second Trump administration, states have continued making progress building a more affordable, reliable, and cleaner energy system.

Today, states have a larger responsibility than ever. Energy costs have become one of the top financial concerns for American families, with Gallup polling showing worry about energy prices at its highest level in 18 years. At the same time, electricity demand is projected to rise 55 percent over the next 25 years, driven largely by the growth of data centers. And rather than helping states meet that demand affordably, with clean energy the Trump administration is doing all it can to block new energy projects — driving costs up for consumers. All the while, the climate crisis continues to raise costs for Americans and cause increasing harm to our communities — just look at the wildfires that have raged throughout North America this summer.

This is precisely why state leadership matters right now. States control major levers over their own energy systems — from utility regulation and permitting, to infrastructure development and finance. And clean energy is the tool best suited to the moment. A July report from the advisory firm Lazard shows that solar and wind are now the cheapest forms of new electricity generation by far, cheaper than new gas power plants. Clean energy is also faster to build, which matters enormously given how quickly demand is growing. Clean energy made up 91 percent of new grid capacity added in the first quarter of 2026, and solar outpaced coal generation for the first time in American history this past May. States that embrace that reality can deliver real relief to their residents. States that don’t will be left paying more for less.

This year also presents an inflection point, in which American voters will elect the governors, legislators and public utility commissioners that will help determine our nation’s energy future. Thirty-six states hold gubernatorial elections this November, and at least 21 brand new governors will take office next year. Voters will decide on new members and majorities in state legislatures and utility commissions in places like Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia. One way or the other, 2027 will bring a new crop of state leaders, and with it the opportunity to build a more affordable and prosperous American economy — powered with clean energy.

We’re already seeing what this leadership looks like in practice, with two new governors elected just last year, both of whom ran with affordable energy at the center of their campaign platforms. In New Jersey, Gov. Mikie Sherrill has taken on out-of-control utility rate increases, signed legislation to modernize the grid, and approved 18 new clean energy projects. In Virginia, Gov. Abigail Spanberger has signed legislation to expand solar deployment — helping families save an average of 23 percent on their utility bills with in-home energy installations. From the plains of Illinois to the coast of New England to the deserts of New Mexico, states are moving the ball forward with more affordable and reliable clean power.

State leaders must of course be clear-eyed about the obstacles the federal government is putting in their path. The Trump administration has admitted in court that it has cancelled energy grants to states that did not vote for him, while preserving them for red states — a sign of how Republican governors wanted to keep their clean energy money.

Trump’s cuts to clean energy programs are projected to add $11.6 billion to American household energy bills over the next decade; the predictable result of a federal approach that favors the profits of incumbent energy interests over the interests of ratepayers. But states have their own power — they can accelerate interconnection of new clean generation, control how utilities recover costs, hold data center developers accountable, and ensure that as energy demand grows the costs of meeting it aren’t dumped onto American households.

The market has already shifted. Clean energy is cheaper and faster to build than the alternatives, and demand for electricity is only going to keep climbing. The only question left is whether current and future state leaders, and the voters who elect them, will use the tools they have to turn that shift into lower bills and more reliable power for the people they serve. That is the opportunity in front of states right now — this year. And it cannot and must not wait for Washington, D.C.

Jay Inslee served as governor of Washington from 2013-2025. He previously served in Congress from 1993-1995 and 1999-2012. Inslee is currently working with state leaders to advance a more affordable and prosperous clean energy economy, through the State Power Project.

Originally published in The Hill on August 25, 2026.

As communities across the country get closer to putting Big Oil companies on trial for their climate deception, Republican lawmakers have introduced bills that aim to shield fossil fuel companies from any laws or lawsuits that could hold them accountable. Former three-term Washington Governor and climate champion Jay Inslee recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to warn members of Congress about Big Oil’s lobbying campaign to escape accountability and urge them to oppose it.

“Americans deserve not to be lied to by big corporations — they should be subject to the same laws everybody is subject to,” Inslee said. “We should have no kings in the White House and no kings saying they’re above the law.”

The bills, introduced by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Representative Harriet Hageman (R-WY) in the Senate and House respectively, seek to eliminate all existing and future climate accountability efforts against fossil fuel companies, including climate deception lawsuits and climate superfund laws.

Following Inslee’s visit, nearly a dozen members of Congress have already spoken in opposition to the bills, raising concerns of the oil and gas industry being placed above the law, similar to the 2005 law giving gun manufacturers a legal liability shield.

“This bill would slam the door on holding fossil fuel polluters accountable and shift the burden onto New Yorkers,” said Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). “Polluters should pay for the climate damage they caused, not taxpayers.”

“I want to make sure our caucus is prepared for the fight that lies ahead because it is critical that the actors responsible for causing and worsening the climate crisis can be held accountable in the judiciary system,” Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said in a briefing to the House of Representatives’ Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition

Thousands of people have signed a petition urging Congress to protect communities’ ability to hold powerful corporations accountable and reject efforts to give Big Oil companies legal immunity.

Originally published by the Center for Climate Integrity on May 21, 2026

The current political landscape represents a magical moment for anyone envisioning a clean energy future, Inslee said, pointing to three factors making the case for a clean energy transition.

“Number one, we know that Americans are increasingly frustrated about their high electricity costs,” Inslee said. “Number two, we know that the market is demanding sources of clean energy because it is cheaper and because it is faster, both. And number three, we know that the federal government has withdrawn from any responsibility for dealing with this problem.”

While others view the Trump administration’s opposition to clean energy with doom and gloom, Inslee argued the contrary.

Invoking Winston Churchill, he stressed that days like these are days of consequence.

“Right now, I believe these are great days for Michigan and Washington where we can move the ball forward, because we have demonstrated in Washington, and you have in Michigan as well, that this is really true,” Inslee said. “Nobody in the White House can stop Michigan or Washington from moving forward on clean energy.”

From helping to install heat pumps to expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure, the vast majority of decarbonization efforts cannot be touched by the federal government, Inslee said.

“Technology is with us. People are with us. The science is behind us, and we have vast majorities of people who want to see this happen,” Inslee said. “So I bid you well in your journey, I want to let you know we’re always there to help in Washington State.”

Also speaking at the conference was Phil Roos, the director of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, who said Michigan has undergone a profound shift in under 10 years.

He pointed to the state’s commitment to reaching 100% carbon neutrality by 2050; the release of the MI Healthy Climate Plan in 2022, which set the roadmap for that goal, and the decision to place the Healthy Climate Plan goals into state law with Michigan’s 2023 clean energy laws.

Read the Full Article

Originally published in Michigan Advance on April 22 2026

Former Washington Governor Jay Inslee is sounding the alarm about Big Oil’s lobbying campaign for legal immunity, warning of the harm to communities, affordability, and democracy if the fossil fuel industry is placed above the law.

Last week, Inslee and Center for Climate Integrity staff briefed members of Congress about the oil industry’s push to secure a legal shield that would block communities across the country from holding the fossil fuel industry accountable for its climate deception and the damages it has fueled.

“I am playing the role of Paul Revere here,” Inslee told members of the House of Representatives’ Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition. “The British aren’t coming but the oil and gas industry is.”

Big Oil and its allies have spent the past year waging a coordinated campaign to secure legal immunity from Congress that would stop any laws or lawsuits that could hold the industry accountable for its role in the climate crisis.

Oil lobbyists have stated that killing climate liability efforts is one of their top priorities this year, and U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) said in February that she is working with members in “both the House and Senate to craft legislation tackling” the growing number of climate accountability lawsuits and climate superfund laws Big Oil is facing. Last year, 16 Republican attorneys general called for a “liability shield” for Big Oil modeled after the 2005 law protecting gun manufacturers from lawsuits, and lawmakers in several states have introduced state-level legal shields for fossil fuel companies modeled off of draft legislation from a pro-fossil fuel group.

Inslee, a former three-term governor, House member, and trial lawyer, also appeared on multiple national news networks to denounce Big Oil’s pursuit of a get-out-of-jail-free card.

“Oil and gas executives are terrified of having to face their own record,” Inslee told CNN. “They are terrified of being cross-examined and read the things they wrote back in the ‘70s and ‘80s that predicted this catastrophe that we are now experiencing.

“This is all a part of a corrupt scheme,” Inslee said. “[Big Oil is] gouging Americans for electricity prices and gas prices, and then turn[ing] around and say[ing] ‘we’re exempt from all the laws, we’re above the laws, and we don’t have to be accountable for our deception.’ Americans should revile that action and we should not allow it.”

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said in a social media post after Inslee’s visit that pushing to immunize Big Oil in Congress would be a dealbreaker for ongoing permitting reform talks.

“If they want to blow up permitting reform, making this nonsense national would be the way to do it,” Whitehouse posted on social media in response to news that Utah had passed the nation’s first state-level legal shield for fossil fuel companies. “Rule of Law must fall before Fossil Fuel?”

A growing number of groups, elected officials, and community members are calling on Congress to oppose any efforts to put Big Oil above the law. Nearly 200 organizations, including CCI, have urged Democratic leaders in Congress to oppose any form of a legal shield for the oil and gas industry, calling on leaders to “ensure both justice today and the right of future generations to hold polluters responsible for decades of deception.”

Originally published by the Center for Climate Integrity on April 1, 2026

Donald Trump took office with a promise to cut energy prices in half. Instead, utility bills are up 10% this year while his administration is busy waging war against America’s cheapest sources of new electricity, wind and solar.

Even in this age of post-truth politics, you’d be hard-pressed to find a clearer example of a president promising one thing and delivering the exact opposite. Our electricity grid faces real challenges that are driving up costs for consumers. Those include rising demand from data centers powering artificial intelligence, as well as aging infrastructure, volatile fossil fuel prices, supply chain shortages, increasingly extreme weather events, a lack of transmission, and outdated grid interconnection systems. Building out a larger grid with more clean energy can be a solution to all these problems, yet Trump’s entire energy agenda is aimed at blocking it.

Americans deserve better from their federal government. Fortunately, state and local leaders can step into the breach by speeding up the deployment of cheap renewable power themselves.

Let’s start with the facts: Even without federal subsidies, solar and wind are the least expensive energy resources available today as well as the fastest ways to add power to the grid. Last year across the country, solar, wind, and energy storage made up over 90% of the new capacity. States that added the most clean energy in recent years have also avoided the largest energy cost increases.

Even without federal subsidies, solar and wind are the least expensive energy resources available today as well as the fastest ways to add power to the grid.

Contrast this with the performance of fossil fuel resources: Natural gas prices have increased 40% in one year and the cost of building a new plant has tripled according to industry executives, in part because there is a five-plus year backlog to acquire new gas turbines. In oil-and-gas-rich Texas, planned gas plants are being canceled due to high costs, even though the state is attempting to subsidize them. Meanwhile, renewable energy is booming. Grid operators there credit wind, solar, and storage for keeping the lights on during a heat wave this summer.

Rather than support the growth of affordable solar and wind — which are also driving a U.S. manufacturing renaissance — Trump and his cabinet have launched an all-out assault on them. Doug Burgum, his interior secretary, ordered nearly complete offshore wind projects to be cancelled without due cause. His Transportation Department proposed an unscientific setback rule to restrict onshore wind energy. The Treasury Department gutted long-standing tax credit rules and is now driving major business uncertainty. And the Department of Agriculture pulled its support for solar energy projects that are helping farmers make ends meet.

Most importantly, the massive tax and budget bill Republicans passed this summer rolled back federal tax credits for wind and solar. As a result, analysts project that the United States could install as much as 62% less clean energy over the next decade, and energy bills will increase by $170 per year. In some states annual bill increases could top $600.

A majority of Americans say they’re worried about rising energy costs, and already feel greater financial stress because of them. But Trump seems to be focused on repaying his political benefactors. Last year, he and Secretary Burgum hosted oil and gas executives at Trump’s hotel in Mar-a-Lago, where Trump promised them a gold rush if they would provide cash for his campaign. They delivered just under $100 million, and now he is delivering for their profit margins — trying to crush their clean energy competition so they can gouge customers at will. Everyday Americans are left to foot the bill, and even Chris Wright, Trump’s secretary of energy, has acknowledged that their administration will be blamed for it.

America’s future does not need to look this way. As former governor of Washington state and one of his former advisors, we have seen what a clean energy agenda can deliver. Our state has long been a national leader in renewable energy, and has long enjoyed some of the lowest retail electricity prices in the country. Indeed, in both blue and red states where leaders have promoted the deployment of clean energy, their residents are reaping the benefits of lower costs. Ironically, this once even included Secretary Burgum, who proudly embraced renewable energy as part of an “all of the above” energy strategy when he was governor of North Dakota. That state now gets 40% of its power from renewables, especially wind, and it has some of the lowest electricity prices in the nation.

The good news is that state and local governments still have levers they can pull to better protect their ratepayers.

Deploy more clean energy, and fast

First, they need to deploy more clean energy, and fast. A number of states are already rushing to help more solar and wind projects break ground before federal tax incentives expire next year thanks to Trump’s megabill, which will in effect raise the costs of these projects by 30-plus percentage points. Going forward, state and local policymakers should streamline siting and permitting processes so that projects get done more quickly. They can also enact their own state-level incentives, and provide low-cost financing through state green banks and energy funds. Red and blue states ranging from Alabama and Virginia to Minnesota and Washington have established and capitalized state energy-financing institutions, and more than 50 state and local green banks now exist throughout the United States.

Across the country, an enormous number of clean energy developments are currently stuck in what’s known as the “interconnection queue” — a giant traffic jam of projects that are essentially waiting for permission to plug into the grid. When a regional grid operator is taking too long getting new plants online, states should band together to demand reforms, as Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states are doing as part of the PJM Interconnection. In the meantime, they can also help projects get around that backlog by letting them connect through infrastructure that has already been approved for existing power plants but is currently going unused.

We need all the clean electrons we can get, so along with major utility-scale projects, states should also promote rooftop solar as well as other small- and mid-sized installations. And we can get more out of the projects we’ve already paid for; using innovative software models, small projects can be connected together into virtual power plants to cost-effectively meet electricity demand and reduce the need for new large power plants.

States should also make sure families and businesses don’t end up footing the bill for power-hungry data centers by working with tech companies to carefully manage their electricity demand, or make them invest in their own clean energy and storage capacity.

We need to expand the grid

Second, we need to expand the grid: Lack of transmission infrastructure — the high-voltage power lines that move electricity over long distances — is a major challenge to our ability to maintain a low-cost and reliable grid. A 2023 study from the U.S. Department of Energy made this plainly clear, and found that expanding transmission could save Americans hundreds of billions of dollars — with every dollar invested returning $1.60 to $1.80 in savings.

Policy wonks tend to talk about transmission building as an Uncle Sam problem, partly because federal law governs projects that stretch across state lines. And federal policy solutions — especially reforms to permitting and cost allocation — are certainly needed. But states and local officials can help get more power lines built, too, by taking a stronger role in planning and financing, especially if they work together, the way Midwestern states have through the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s Transmission Expansion Plan.

States can also act immediately to squeeze more juice out of our current grid by promoting grid-enhancing technologies. For instance, Montana and others are allowing utilities to recoup the cost of covering power lines with advanced conductors, which could double transmission capacity along existing corridors for less than the cost of building new lines.

Hold utilities accountable

Third, hold utilities accountable: State governments have primary authority in the regulation of retail electric utilities that sell power to homes and businesses. And states, through their public utilities commissions, must use every bit of this authority to better protect ratepayers — exercising close scrutiny of their plans to meet load growth and requests for customer rate increases.

If you were one of the many activists who took part in last weekend’s Sun Day, this is one place where you can make a difference. The utility regulatory complex is an opaque beast, but Americans can participate in utility commission proceedings, and voters can hold their commissioners accountable — via direct elections, in ten states, or through the governors and the legislators who install them, in others.

To be sure, not all states are total masters of their own destinies when it comes to electricity costs. Those that participate in wholesale electricity markets, in particular, rely upon regional grid operators to oversee the interconnection of new energy generation, transmission planning, and markets for daily energy demand and future reliability. These regional markets are supposed to deliver the lowest-cost energy for consumers, via competition. But some, like PJM — which includes 13 states in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest — have been falling down on the job by failing to approve new wind and solar projects, plan adequate transmission infrastructure, or maintain affordable capacity auctions. This has caused massive cost increases for homes and businesses in the region.

But states can take steps to make these markets work. As we mentioned earlier, members of PJM are now demanding reforms. Meanwhile, in other places, states are working together to expand wholesale electricity markets in ways that could help deploy more low-cost energy; recent legislation passed in California is poised to facilitate the creation of an independently governed western energy market, which could deliver billions in savings for ratepayers in the region.

Renewables are the cheapest power available, the fastest to build, and the surest way to strengthen our grid while bringing down costs for consumers.

Furthermore, there are of course other steps that states can take to address energy costs, including by offering direct financial relief to consumers, supporting energy efficiency programs, and deploying battery storage and other zero-emission technologies that continue to enjoy federal tax incentives. Electricity bills are on the rise, and Americans are demanding solutions.

The big picture point, however, is that the politics and economics of energy have changed. Renewables are the cheapest power available, the fastest to build, and the surest way to strengthen our grid while bringing down costs for consumers. Wind and solar create good-paying jobs in our communities, keep money in families’ pockets, and give America a competitive edge in the fast-growing global industries of the 21st century. Donald Trump is leading a costly conspiracy against clean energy. But state and local leaders can champion this low-cost energy that’s needed to power America’s future.

Originally published in The Argument on September 24, 2025

Jay Inslee believes in the power of local action—even in overcoming national pushback.

“Right now, we know these are hard days. We’ve got a person in the White House who must have been scared by wind turbines as a young man,” the three-term Democratic governor of Washington State said at the 2025 TIME Earth Awards on April 23. “But despite the bad news coming out of Washington, D.C., we have a magic vehicle for progress that is the states.”

Despite the President withdrawing the U.S. from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and dismantling climate initiatives across the country, “Donald Trump cannot stop a state from defeating climate change,” Inslee said.

In 2021, Inslee signed into law Washington’s Climate Commitment Act, which requires the state’s largest polluters to cap emissions and purchase allowances for the amount they pollute, which the state reinvests into clean energy. He has passed laws requiring a 100% clean—meaning generated from renewable or zero-carbon resources—electrical grid by 2045, invested billions of dollars into solar power and electric vehicles, and launched state programs to help businesses and residents transition to clean energy.

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President and CEO of American Forests, the oldest forest conservation non-governmental organization in the U.S., Jad Daley, who presented the award to Inslee, said Inslee’s leadership is “needed now more than ever.”

“The Governor’s leadership in Washington State alone would merit this award,” Daley said. But Inslee “went a pivotal step further” in 2017—when Trump first tried to withdraw from the Paris Agreement—by co-founding the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of 24 states that pledged to maintain pace with the goals set forth in the accord. Member states include Michigan, where Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law an extensive climate package in 2023 that would push the state towards 100% clean energy by 2040, and Maine, where Gov. Janet Mills has signed multiple clean energy and solar power bills.

“The cheapest electricity today is clean energy,” Inslee said. “We are the answer to inflation, to give people cheap, inexpensive, clean energy.”

Inslee ended on a call to action.

“This is the United States, and every one of those states has the capability of advancing clean energy and fighting climate change,” Inslee said. “I’m tired of playing defense. We need to play offense right now.”

Originally published in Time Magazine on April 23, 2025

There are two immutable forces that we ought to know President Donald Trump cannot stop. The first is the incoming tide of the ocean. The second is the growth of the clean-energy economy. He cannot hold back the rising tide because no steady stream of bluster, prevarication, or snake-oil salesmanship can have any effect on gravitational forces that rule the tides. Likewise, he cannot stop our creation of a clean-energy economy, because he cannot thwart the tremendously successful local efforts by leaders in states and towns who, by pushing for concrete, bold action on climate, are now growing green jobs like gangbusters. He may be able to slow climate progress down, but he cannot stop it entirely.

Local leaders have the freedom to decide what their state prioritizes. We have the ability to pass our own laws, our own investments, our own air-quality standards. And we know we can achieve big things locally because we already met this challenge eight years ago. In the years since Trump pulled our nation out of the Paris Agreement in 2017, we in Washington State were advancing major climate policy—unrestrained by the federal government. This includes passing the country’s most aggressive cap-and-invest law, limiting carbon emissions by setting a clean-fuel standard and requiring a 100% clean electrical grid by 2045, and investing billions to help Washingtonians acquire everything from electric school buses to solar power. None of these achievements can be taken away by the stroke of a President’s pen.

Emboldened by the power of local action, during Trump’s first term I co-founded the U.S. Climate Alliance—a group of 24 states, representing nearly 60% of the U.S. economy, that recognize their obligation to carry the ball with a climate denier in the White House, and the inarguable ability of states to act of their own accord. This approach maximizes the ideals of federalism: states acting in concert using their own mechanisms toward a common goal. And it has led to record clean-energy jobs, entrepreneurship, and robust economic growth. In Michigan, for example, Governor Gretchen Whitmer passed a 100% clean-electricity law in 2023 that will lower energy prices. In Maine, Governor Janet Mills’ incredible work over the past year financing heat pumps has resulted in the electrification of homes across her state. Thanks to the America Is All In coalition, cities and counties across the U.S. are undertaking similar efforts in their communities.

This is not to say that Trump is not a threat to climate progress. His current attempt to cut funding for clean-energy deployment—from EV-charger installations to solar—is depriving us of our clean-energy future. But rather than waiting for the judicial system to right these wrongs, or cursing our TV screens, we must act ourselves.

At this dark moment, we see peril in coping with the effects of climate change, but we also face much promise of building a new, better, higher-paying green economy. This promise, however, won’t happen without millions of Americans standing up for action. You have the power to help shape the destiny of every place you touch. You have the power to demand action from your representatives, to be on the streets, to make contributions to groups in the political trenches. The only thing that would be wrong is to do nothing.

We control our own destiny. Each of our states is free to build our own policies, our own industries, our own visions for our own communities. And Trump cannot stop us.

Trump cannot stop the overwhelming pace of technological and industrial progress that has made renewable energy the least expensive form of energy and the electric vehicle the most fun and least expensive to drive. Progress on this front is inexorable. We have the tools, we have the vision, and we have one another. It is now our job to push our states to accelerate the pace of this massive decarbonization. We control our own destiny. Each of our states is free to build our own policies, our own industries, our own visions for our own communities. And Trump cannot stop us.

Originally published in Time Magazine on March 27, 2025