Each month, LCV shares five stories about the impact of our work. This month, we’re highlighting five areas where our movement made a difference this year: advancing state clean energy and democracy progress, holding members of Congress accountable, defending public lands, and winning elections.
In 2025, states from Arizona to Wisconsin advanced clean energy progress, leading the nation forward on climate action and fighting to lower energy bills for families. Through the Clean Energy for All campaign, LCV and our 30 state affiliates played a central role in driving this progress — mobilizing grassroots demand, building strong coalitions, winning equitable policies, and ensuring that benefits reach communities.
Watch some of our state affiliate leaders describe exciting affordable clean energy policy wins in their states:
To combat the climate crisis and protect our democracy, we need a government that hears, protects, and reflects the people it represents.
LCV and our 30 state affiliates worked all year to protect and expand access to the voting booth by organizing and advocating for strong pro-democracy policies across the country. With your support, we scored some major victories. We also pushed back against authoritarianism by helping to mobilize millions of people during several nationwide days of nonviolent protests — a show of strength for our growing movement.
LCV is known for holding lawmakers publicly accountable for their votes. So when congressional Republicans voted to gut affordable clean energy and raise prices, we launched a nationwide campaign to let their constituents know and to push Republicans to change course.
As energy costs soared across the country, LCV showed up in the home districts of members of Congress who voted for Trump’s Big Ugly Bill to deliver a powerful message from their constituents: We can’t afford this. Our work is helping to shape a national narrative on high energy costs and the economic benefits of affordable clean energy — work we’ll continue in 2026.
Our public lands and waters are national treasures that belong to us all. The Trump administration is relentlessly trying to sell them off to polluters, and we’re mobilizing nationwide to stop them.
There are 640 million acres of public lands owned and managed by the federal government, including national parks, monuments, and wilderness areas. These lands enjoy some of the broadest public support of any major issue, and the vast majority of Americans oppose closing or selling them.
In April, LCV and our state affiliates launched a nationwide campaign to protect our irreplaceable public lands and waters from the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks. In August, we held events in Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Oregon, and other states with advocates, lawmakers, community leaders, and artists to celebrate and defend the lands we rely on. We continue to put pressure on lawmakers to stop their sell-off for drilling, mining, and logging.
Over the last year, our movement took this message to heart: don’t agonize — organize. In 2025, we applied lessons learned from the 2024 elections and zeroed in on voters’ concerns around affordability, especially utility rates. From ad testing to door-to-door canvassing, we innovated our tactics to reach voters and turn them out for pro-clean energy candidates.
Our strategy succeeded, as our state affiliates ran successful campaigns in important state and local elections nationwide. Their efforts to define the issues and engage voters helped deliver major victories in Georgia, New Jersey, Virginia, and elsewhere, along with other important wins for our environment and democracy, from state Supreme Court races to ballot measures to city council races.
Everyone deserves access to clean water, regardless of income or zip code. Last month, Trump’s EPA proposed eliminating critical safeguards for streams that feed our drinking water and wetlands that help protect our communities. This ’Polluted Water Rule’ would put the profits of polluters ahead of the health of families and communities, jeopardizing the clean water we use for drinking, recreating, and fueling our local economies. You can help by contacting the EPA today.
