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How to Raise the Ambition of State Climate Policy: Just Add Nuclear

The latest from Jameson McBride

There's been a lot of buzz around state-led climate action lately. We're excited to watch state after state turn Renewable Portfolio Standards into Clean Energy Standards, which means these mandates now include not just renewable energy but also technologies like nuclear and carbon capture. Research has shown that this approach — including a diverse mix of low-carbon sources — will make decarbonization more feasible at a lower cost.

But for these new standards to work, innovation policy must bring the clean energy technologies we need up to par; as Jameson argues, "mandates only work if the technology is 'close enough' to being cost-competitive." Combining federal policy with state mandates, then, could accelerate decarbonization while bringing "policy down from the symbolic national discourse and into the practical 'laboratories of democracy' of the states."

Decarbonizing from the ground up >>>

Jameson McBride on "the largest wave of US climate policy action in history"

Since we published our report on Clean Energy Standards with Third Way last summer, nearly a dozen states have passed or debated them. This amounts to arguably the largest wave of US climate policy action in history, so we’re understandably excited! A key aspect of the policies’ ambition has been to include nuclear and carbon capture, along with renewables, in state mandates. My newest web article for Breakthrough lays out the progress we’ve made, implications for federal policy, and where we should go from here. David Roberts at Vox covered it yesterday, along with a new poll that illustrates that Americans are on board with an inclusive definition of clean energy.

New on the Breakthrough Dialogues:
Energy for Growth with Todd Moss

We ask energy policy expert Todd Moss about the seemingly oppositional goals of energy-intensive climate adaptation and reducing fossil fuel reliance, common misconceptions around the idea of leapfrogging, and why he wrote a four-part fictional book series about the dysfunctional US foreign policymaking process. Tune in.

More power, not less >>>

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