"Minnesota Democrats, newly in control of the state government, began 2023 by enacting a clean electricity standard. Michigan lawmakers followed suit months later — as one of their final acts before gaveling out for the year.
The two laws were bookends to a year of climate action, experts say, as Democratic state officials advanced major policies that climate hawks could once only dream of.
State officials committed serious money and political capital to cleaning up the electricity sector — the backbone of the energy transition — while also boosting electric vehicles, restricting gas in new buildings, and building factories to manufacture batteries and other clean technology. Climate activists hope such actions ripple out nationwide, as the U.S. lags in its goal of halving emissions by 2030."
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