“It might not get much attention or make the headlines, but this election could really make a difference for me and my neighbors.”
That’s Montana State University junior Julian Staggs, who at 19 is voting in his first election and plans to cast a ballot for the board of the state’s public utility commission. Such down-ballot races for an often-overlooked arm of state bureaucracy usually don’t attract too many voters. But in the red state of Montana, it’s one of two statewide elections (along with Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s tough fight to keep his seat and potentially the balance of power in that chamber) that could make a big difference, locally and nationally, in how the nation addresses climate change.
The presidential election and congressional races have sucked up most of the oxygen in the media and the fundraising dollars this year due to the outsize influence of an administration’s climate agenda (or lack of one) and the parties’ ability to stymie or speed up policies through federal legislation.
But beyond those races, there are plenty of elections — statewide and local — that are likely to have a significant impact on the pace of climate change in this country and the transition to a clean-energy future.
Here are some of the other most important climate races:
Gubernatorial: North Carolina
In some states, governors have plenty of influence and use executive authority to advance their climate agenda. This year, there are 11 gubernatorial races, but few of them are as closely fought as that in North Carolina, where Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who has reached his term limit, has done an end run around the Republican-controlled legislature in recent years and pushed ambitious initiatives to promote clean energy, incentivize the use of electric vehicles and order agencies to take action on climate change.
The two candidates to replace him are on opposite sides of the climate issue — with Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson calling climate change a hoax and seeking to increase extraction of fossil fuels. Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein has prosecuted polluters, indicated he would continue advancing Cooper’s climate agenda and seeks to put the state on a path to carbon neutrality by 2050.
Commissions: Arizona and Montana
These often-overlooked state bodies regulate energy production — and in two states heavily contested races could tip the balance of power. There are three open seats on the five-member board of the Republican-controlled Arizona Corporation Commission, which regulates most power and water utilities in the state and has been criticized for not expanding solar and for scrapping renewable energy standards. In the past year, the commission approved expansion plans for gas power plants without requiring them to undergo environmental reviews. Several Democrats who promise to speed the state’s transition to renewable energy sources are running to take control of the commission, attracting the financial support of celebrities like Jane Fonda, who canvassed for them in Tucson the week of Oct. 14.
Montana’s Republican-controlled Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities in that state, has an open seat on its five-member board. The body has been criticized by environmentalists for not considering climate change in its oversight of the energy industry — the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state. Independent candidate Elena Evans, the environmental health manager for the Missoula City-County Health Department who wants the commission to take a more active role in combating the effects of climate change, is seeking to unseat the Republican incumbent, Jennifer Fielder.
Attorney General: Pennsylvania
Attorneys general in several states have played a major role in energy policy by prosecuting oil and gas producers for emissions and companies for their misleading climate claims.
Pennsylvania, the country’s No. 2 natural gas producer, has a tight race for the position between Democrat Eugene DePasquale, who has a long history of strong climate policy, and Republican David Sunday, who has not expressed a position on climate change or sustainability. The state’s previous attorney general, current Gov. Josh Shapiro, was widely praised by environmentalists for his tough approach to polluters.
State Legislatures: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania
In some crucial battleground states — Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania — control of the state legislature, where climate and energy policy is often hashed out, is tightly contested. To illustrate the importance of state action, about 53% of the U.S. population lives in states and territories with 100% clean-energy goals.
This is starkly clear in Pennsylvania, where Democrats have a one-seat majority in the House and have a chance to achieve a tie in the Republican-led Senate. Dozens of environmental bills — from promoting access to solar energy to supporting renewable energy — have been passed by the House but never gained traction in the Senate.
In Wisconsin, the political tides have turned rapidly from 2022, when Republicans were on the verge of getting two-thirds supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature, which would have allowed them to easily override Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ climate-friendly proposals. However, they didn’t get quite enough votes, and Evers was able to sign the state’s first-ever climate plan with emissions-reduction goals and renewable energy incentives. And now both parties are vying for control of the Assembly, where the future of the state’s climate agenda will be decided.
Ballot Initiatives: Washington, California
Since 2021, Washington has raised more than $2 billion — via a law that capped the amount of carbon emissions coming from companies in the state — and used it to pay for electric buses and ferries, EV charging stations, a massive solar project by the Yakama Nation and to help a mining company convert its mine into a clean hydrogen plant (the last two projects have faced substantial difficulties, but that’s not the fault of the state program). But a ballot initiative funded by hedge fund executive Brian Heywood threatens to repeal the Climate Commitment Act.
And in California, Proposition 4 would allow the state to borrow $10 billion by issuing bonds for water projects, wildfire prevention, protection from extreme heat and efforts to protect the coasts from sea-level rise. The initiative is in response to the growing impact of climate change, with some estimates that the state could be paying $113 billion a year by 2050 to deal with its effects.
These elections and initiatives are critical, said Jeff Ordower, the North American director of climate advocacy group 350.org, because so much can be accomplished at the local level when it comes to clean energy and taking on climate change. “They’re laboratories for what’s possible and doable.”
Molly Parzen, the executive director of Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, counsels voters to “take a few minutes to think about when and how you will vote. Are the [candidates] talking about the issues you care about? Are they going to protect our drinking water and support policies that help us address both the causes and effects of climate change?”
