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?

Kate Courtin, a senior advocate with the Environmental Defense Fund, unpacks these questions and more.

Massachusetts has long been a climate leader. But even the Commonwealth does not have all the policies in place to meet its ambitious targets for emission reductions, especially in the building sector. Can the Bay State pull it together?

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Larry Chretien, Executive Director of the Green Energy Consumers Alliance, provides an overview of the Bay State's climate policy landscape: what's working, what isn't, and what's left to do.

In 2022, Democrats won a legislative trifecta in Michigan for the first time in nearly four decades. Before the end of their first year in office, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her razor-thin Democratic majority passed a sweeping package of climate bills, targeting clean electricity and permitting reform.

Michigan climate expert Eli Gold gives an inside look at how Michigan's climate and energy policy has evolved over the past two years, the narrow window of opportunity that made it possible, and what's left to do.

While often overlooked compared to its neighbors, New Jersey has had recent wins on building decarb (e.g. a 2030 heat pump target, new money for incentives).

RMI’s Olivia Prieto provides an overview of climate policy in the Garden State, unpacks these recent building decarbonization wins, and explains where the state can still make progress (new construction policy, elimination of gas subsidies, and so on).

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. 

North Carolina State Senator DeAndrea Salvador gives 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, a former National Academies researcher on public infrastructure, climate, and environmental best practice and organizational change, will walk us through CO's climate policy and politics landscape.

Utility Thermal Energy Networks—neighborhood-scale building heating and cooling built by utilities—are all the rage in the Northeast. Advocates increasingly see UTENs as a way enlist utilities in large-scale building decarbonization.

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. Allison Considine from BDC explains what UTENs are, what they’re good for, and walks us through the plans for some of New York’s forthcoming pilots!

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.

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

States are in the driver's seat of the energy transition, and have the opportunity to make tomorrow's energy system vastly more just than today's. But energy justice starts with real opportunities participation–what energy justice advocates call “procedural justice.”

The Community Voices in Energy project from Blacks in Green and EDF brings community voices into public utility commissions to reach more equitable outcomes. Curt Stokes from EDF discusses the project's impact in IL and expansion to other states.