Climate Policy Is a State Issue Now

What am I doing writing this blog post about climate policy? I have no idea.

I have never worked in sustainability. But over the last decade and specifically right now, when I have a fork in the road in the form of some time to take a step back from my place in the corporate workforce, climate impact feels more dire than ever. We just had a tumultuous election – the future of climate protection under the incoming Trump administration is not bright. But rather than spiraling into doom and gloom (okay, guilty – I do it occasionally, social media doesn’t help) I am starting to ask myself – how do I move into climate technology? Into sustainability? Into an organization that is making an impact to try to leave this planet better than we found it?

And thus – I have been reading more and more opinion pieces on climate tech. I happened to come across this article from Tech Brew – an interview with Gregg Small, executive director at Climate Solutions – which specifically talks about states’ roles in moving climate policy forward. And that is a terrifying, but also exciting prospect. Because what I’ve come to realize is that yes, the president of the United States is presumably the highest ranking role in the country – but it’s just a human person. Who can’t do everything themselves. What it really takes is many people, making up communities, changing their communities for the better. It’s slow, arduous work to be sure – but I hope that with advancements in technology and globalization the slow turn of the ship that paints climate action not as the responsibility of the big dogs, but states – will inspire more companies to sprout up, thrive and make a dent.

Small talks about ‘leadership states continuing to move forward’ – and among those leadership states listed (Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan) – the Centennial State is one. I’d love to help make this state a bright beacon of hope and example for the rest of states to follow. Perhaps this is the fuel under our butts we needed. Specifically this paragraph is exciting:

“Climate tech is exploding in part because of the Inflation Reduction Act.
So if you couple transforming markets of the scale of California and all these other states, as well as Microsoft and Amazon buying up renewable energy, you can transform markets, and that’s not something that the Trump administration can stop. He can slow it. He can stall it. He will, that will happen. But if we do right on these other key tracks, we can keep at it.”