Top clean energy wins from the midterm elections

The top story from Tuesday’s elections is clear: Democrats won big-time on the national level, dominating U.S. Senate and House races across the country. And on the state level, clean energy could get a jolt from Democratic wins for state offices and utility commissions and new approved ballot measures. Here’s a roundup of top results.

Democratic trifectas

The blue wave overtook several state legislatures and governor’s mansions last night. Come January, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and likely Arizona will all have Democratic trifectas — control of both houses of the legislature and the governor’s office. And some of the states are highly likely to use that power to further climate and clean energy action.

Take Michigan, where Democrats gained control of the legislature and governor’s seat in 2022 and then used that power to enact a target of 100% clean energy by 2040. That goal is still in place despite the Republican-controlled House’s attempt to repeal it earlier this year. Now, Democratic leaders may use their restored power to pass additional ambitious measures.

Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party passed a similar clean energy mandate with the blue trifecta it won in 2022, and has the opportunity to further similar goals now that the DFL has regained control of the House. 

Next door, in Wisconsin, clean energy advocates suggest the Democrats use their new trifecta to end policies that keep old, polluting power plants running and instead build more solar and batteries.

Total Democratic control is a fresh phenomenon in Pennsylvania, which hasn’t seen a blue trifecta in more than 30 years. Prior to the election, advocates told Inside Climate News that Democrats should use their power to pass several long-delayed bills that would allow Pennsylvanians to subscribe to local solar arrays, pave the way for more grid battery storage, and bar municipalities from installing blanket bans on renewable energy projects.

It’s only been a few years since Democrats had a trifecta in Nevada, but it’s been 60 since they controlled the Arizona legislature. Both states are among the top developers of solar power, and Arizona is rising in the ranks for battery storage. Now, they could lean even harder into clean energy.

Public utility commissions

Georgia’s Democratic sweep extended to its Public Service Commission, as voters elected two Democrats to the utility oversight board. Shelia Edwards is a new addition to the PSC, while Peter Hubbard was reelected after winning a special election last year for an abbreviated term. Democrats now have a 3–2 majority on the commission — a victory for the Solar Energy Industries Association, which spent to promote those candidates. The PSC is now controlled by Democrats for the first time in decades, making Georgia the only state that elects its utility commissioners with a Democratic majority.

Texas also voted blue when picking a new member of its all-Republican Railroad Commission, which oversees the state’s oil and gas industry. Democrat Jon Rosenthal beat GOP candidate Bo French, who had faced blowback for his racist comments.

Alabama’s Public Service Commission stayed in GOP hands as the two open seats went to Republicans. But the Republicans’ power will soon be diluted, as a recent law expands the three-seat commission to seven seats come January, with new members at first appointed by the governor and then gradually affirmed or replaced in elections over the next several years. Gov. Kay Ivey (R) has already named her four appointees, two of whom were nominated by Democrats.

Voters in Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Dakota maintained Republican majorities on their utility boards. Utility commission races in Arizona and Montana still have not been called as of Wednesday afternoon.

Ballot measures

Voters approved ballot proposals in three states that will promote clean energy and utility accountability. In Eugene, Oregon, residents handily OK’d a new tax on corporations to fund clean energy and climate projects. In Michigan, voters resoundingly approved a proposal that would bar investor-owned utilities and other corporations from sidestepping current campaign-finance rules by donating to political action committees. And results so far indicate that a Colorado group’s attempt to enshrine a right to natural gas in the state constitution will fail.

Residents of Ann Arbor, Michigan, voted against creating a municipal utility board that could eventually have led to replacing investor-owned DTE Energy with a public utility in the city. But clean energy is still moving forward in Ann Arbor, which recently launched its own separate Sustainable Energy Utility and is building an innovative housing project powered by geothermal energy and piloting virtual-power-plant technology.

Results have been slow to come in for California’s Proposition 45, which would speed up environmental reviews for certain infrastructure projects, but early results suggest that voters will reject the revision to the state’s Environmental Quality Act. Some clean energy developers and utilities support Prop. 45, while environmental groups are largely opposing it.