Don’t think regional elections and politics are not important. Pollution, water contamination, bad air, greenhouse gases do not recognize borders - not town, city, county, state or nation. Energy policy goes well beyond federal regulations. Governors, state and lower level legislative bodies play an important role in regional policies that impact greenhouse gas emissions and subsequently climate change beyond those regions.
In Pennsylvania, the governor and legislature made it more difficult to update and modernize building codes and chose to opt-out of automatic efficiency measures established by the International Code Council (ICC). Buildings consumed over 40% of the state’s energy demands in 2011 and yet, as the 2012 measures came and went Pennsylvania stuck with lower efficiency codes from 2009. It appears the legislative body may also be positioning to pass on the updates anticipated for 2015.
There’s a petition from the Clean Air Council here:
http://66.11.154.25/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1764&ea.campaign.id=25159
The Ohio state legislature and governor signed into law a bill with the most restrictive set-backs for wind turbines of any state. The bill threatens $2.5 billion of wind energy projects and makes Ohio the first state to slow down clean energy progress and freeze its renewable electricity standard for two years. Ohio has been a leader in wind energy manufacturing with over 60 plants in the state.
American Wind Energy Association news:
http://www.awea.org/MediaCenter/pressrelease.aspx?ItemNumber=6523
In a welcomed success story, the Dryden, NY town council was able to ban the environmentally disastrous drilling process, hydraulic fracturing or fracking, from within their community. A ban that was challenged by the fossil fuel industry but upheld by the New York State high court.
Images from Earth Justice:
http://earthjustice.org/features/photos-dryden?utm_source=crm
Wonder how your governor is doing? An analysis from the CAP action War Room showed that half of the Republican governors in the USA are right in step with the climate change deniers in Congress. Here’s an interactive map that shows where they stand:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/01/3454502/is-your-governor-a-climate-denier/