Election 2018: Clean Energy’s Future Could Rise or Fall with 36 Governors' Races

September 28, 2018

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by Marianne Lavelle and Dan Gearino (Inside Climate News) Governors have the power to set the agenda on renewable energy or throw up roadblocks to its progress. It's become an issue in several races this year. -- Some of the most consequential elections for climate policy this fall could be the 36 governor's races, where a blue wave could position clean energy advocates as a significant counterforce against the Trump administration's fossil fuel agenda.

Republicans currently hold a near-record 33 governorships—a lock on power that has served as a brake on clean energy progress in some areas.

But the tide may be ready to turn. As many as a third of those seats are considered toss-ups or are leaning Democratic in the upcoming election, according to analysts like the Cook Political Report and University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato.

Several of the Democratic contenders have 100 percent clean energy commitments in their platforms, and many others support ambitious renewable portfolio standards, net-metering incentives and other climate policies.

2018 Elections: The Battleground Governor's Races

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"For the first time in a decade, we could have enough state legislatures to take proactive action on climate change and renewable energy," said Leslie Martes, state electoral campaigns director for the League of Conservation Voters, which is spending a record $25 million on state races this year—more than doubling its previous high mark set in 2016.

Freedom Partners Action Fund, one of the political vehicles of the petrochemical billionaire Koch brothers, is blasting the airwaves in Nevada to support GOP candidate Adam Laxalt and has deployed aggressive digital targeting techniques to bolster Republican Ron DeSantis in Florida. READ MORE