While industry accounts for a fourth of US emissions, industrial decarbonization is in its infancy. The IRA has kickstarted work on the issue, however, and states have a key role to play. 

 

Join us for a chat with Mikhail Haramati, NRDC’s new lead on state industrial decarb policy, for an overview of the industrial decarbonization challenge and what states are starting to do about it.

Major building decarbonization legislation was recently introduced in Rhode Island’s legislature. 

 

Join us for a conversation with the bill’s author, Rhode Island State Senator Meghan Kallman, to learn about what’s in the bill, what isn’t, and what it will take to get it passed.

While often overlooked compared to its neighbors, New Jersey is making steady climate progress, and offers a wealth of lessons for climate advocates across the country.

 

Join us for a conversation with RMI’s Olivia Prieto, who works on building decarbonization in New Jersey, for a download of what’s going on with climate policy in the Garden State.

Contrary to popular belief, climate policy-making does happen in states without Democratic trifectas! It just often goes by other names, and the sausage-making can look quite different. 

 

Join us for a chat with North Carolina State Senator DeAndrea Salvador for the low-down on recent policy progress in NC, and what it takes to reach across the aisle to get it done.

Colorado is the Mountain West’s undisputed climate leader (let’s not get into semantics over what region California is in!) And while much has been accomplished in recent years, utilities like XCel Energy are very powerful and have often worked to slow down climate policy across the state.

 

Marie Venner of System Change not Climate Change will walk us through CO’s climate policy and politics landscape.

As climate advocates know, Public Utility Commissions are often the place good policy goes to die. Not so in Connecticut, where new PUC Chairman Marissa Gillet has been shaking up utility regulation. And that’s not all that’s happening climate-wise in CT.

 

Join us for a conversation with Acadia Center’s Jayson Velazquez and Oliver Tully, who will bring us up to speed on everything climate in the Nutmeg State, with a particular focus on equity.

Utility Thermal Energy Networks— Neighborhood-scale building heating and cooling built by utilities—are all the rage in the Northeast. While the technology has been around for a while, advocates increasingly see UTENs as a way to scale up the climate transition for buildings with utilities.

 

While utilities developing them may be new, this isn't a pipe dream: the nation’s first system was recently turned on in Massachusetts, and utilities across the border in New York are advancing 9 pilot projects, with more proposed. Join us for a chat with Allison Considine from the Building Decarbonization Coalition, who will explain what UTENs are, what they’re good for, and walk us through the plans for some of New York’s forthcoming pilots!

New York is preparing to cap emissions and put a price on carbon through a new statewide program–only the third state to do so, and an essential step towards decarbonization. But what exactly is cap-and-invest? If we design it well, how could it benefit New York State? What are the risks of designing it poorly? And how far along are we with fleshing out these crucial details?

 

To unpack these questions, join us for an illuminating conversation with Kate Courtin, a senior advocate with the Environmental Defense Fund.