States can build America's affordable energy future

Americans are facing rising energy bills while witnessing a presidential administration with a vendetta against the cheapest, fastest-to-install form of energy. It’s a bizarre mix: President Trump tried to shut down an 80 percent complete wind energy project that would have powered 350,000 homes, while forcing American ratepayers to pay $180 million to keep a zombie coal plant alive. I’ve heard the question repeatedly in recent months: With an administration so hostile to affordable clean energy, where can Americans turn for hope? The answer is in the states, the "laboratories of democracy" that are continuing to lead on clean affordability energy today, despite what’s happening in Washington, D.C. Try as he might, President Trump cannot stop state progress on clean energy. States have long been at the forefront in America’s energy policy innovation, and amidst skyrocketing utility bills their leadership is now more important than ever. Iowa in the 1980s passed the first renewable energy standard. Texas in the 2000s enacted policies that have made it the national leader in low-cost clean energy deployment. And nine years ago, I joined the governors of California and New York to launch the U.S. Climate Alliance —  a bipartisan alliance of over 20 states advancing a shared clean energy agenda, regardless of what happens in Washington, D.C. In recent years, when federal policy has lurched from the neglect of Trump's first term, to the historic investments of the Biden years…