"Several states could radically change course on clean energy and greenhouse gas emissions after Tuesday’s elections."
"In 2012, North Carolina set a new low bar for climate change denial: Its governor allowed a law to pass that blocked state agencies from considering the best science on sea level rise in policymaking. “If your science gives you a result you don’t like, pass a law saying the result is illegal,” Stephen Colbert quipped at the time. “Problem solved.”
Fast-forward to last week, when North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order pledging that the state would uphold its share of the Paris climate agreement, aiming to cut greenhouse gases 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. In making this pledge, he joins 16 other governors in the United States Climate Alliance who want to cut greenhouse gases and accelerate clean energy even as the Trump administration runs in the opposite direction.
Yet North Carolina’s decision stands out because it is a U-turn from where the state was just six years ago. Storms like Hurricane Florence, worsened by higher sea levels and warmer temperatures, have made climate change impossible to ignore for North Carolinians. But the biggest reason the state has seen such a radical shift is that it elected a governor willing to address climate in a serious way."
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