During the first Trump administration, states and cities, tired of waiting for the federal government to deal with energy and climate challenges, started writing their own laws.

New York passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act in 2019, setting mandatory renewable energy and emissions reduction targets. Virginia passed the Clean Economy Act in 2020, setting a schedule to retire fossil fuel power plants. Colorado set greenhouse gas reduction targets. Boston and Seattle revised their building codes to make buildings more energy efficient and their public transportation fleets cleaner.

In fact, close to half of all Americans live somewhere that made a legally binding commitment to cleaner energy in the early 2020s.

Those laws were written at the start of the energy transition, with the information available at the time. Six years later, several governments are backing away from their commitments.

New York became the first state in the country to roll back its signature climate law in May 2026, trading a binding 2030 target to reduce emissions by 40% for a fuzzier 2040 goal. Gov. Kathy Hochul blamed high energy costs, though the move also conveniently killed a lawsuit she had just lost, in which a judge ruled her administration had ignored the law’s deadline. She admitted the rollback wouldn’t lower anyone’s bills right away.

In Virginia, where I live and work, the largest utility says it can’t both meet demand and retire its gas power plants on the law’s schedule, so it wants a new gas peaker plant – a plant that runs only when needed to meet high demand – to keep the state’s booming data centers running.

Hawaii’s governor signed a tax cut package for low-income workers in May that also phased out a renewable energy tax credit that has fueled the state’s adoption of rooftop solar power.

Even California, long the global pacesetter in addressing climate change, in 2026 handed oil refineries and other big polluters billions of dollars worth of pollution permits they would otherwise have had to........

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