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2024 Clean Energy For All Report: Clean Energy Success in the States

2024 clean energy progress prepares states to take up mantle of climate progress
Dec 5, 2024

Washington, DC – In 2024, states continued to enact ambitious policies driving the U.S. transition to clean energy. In the League of Conservation Voters’ (LCV) latest annual Clean Energy For All: Clean Energy Success in the States report, we detail how 31 states made exciting clean energy progress in 2024 led by our affiliated organizations in the Conservation Voters Movement.

This comes at a crucial time for climate progress. At the start of Trump’s first term, only 1% of people in the United States lived somewhere that was committed to 100% clean energy. LCV state affiliates and partners secured clean energy commitments from gubernatorial candidates across the country and worked alongside elected leaders to turn those commitments into state laws. Today, entirely due to state action, over 40% of the country lives in a state committed to 100% clean energy. During Trump’s first term, he rolled back over 100 environmental protections, attacked climate science, and proposed massive giveaways to Big Oil. He has already made clear that he intends to try to do the same in his second term. In the face of those attacks, state leaders continue to prove they can and will lead on climate action to lower energy costs, create millions of jobs, and reduce pollution for communities across the country.

In 2024, states expanded access to solar power, made critical investments in the electricity grid, held utilities accountable to keep costs down for consumers, protected communities from fossil fuel pollution, and utilized transformative federal investments from the Inflation Reduction Act. Plus, we saw the completion of the country’s first commercial-scale offshore wind project. This progress is lowering energy costs for families, safeguarding public health, bringing vital revenue to communities, and creating millions of good-paying jobs.

Read the full 2024 Clean Energy Success in the States report here.

Highlights include:

  • Alaska Solar Progress: Alaska enacted the bipartisan Saving Alaskans Money with Voluntary Community Energy (SAVE) Act, which authorizes shared off-site energy facilities, such as community solar, an arrangement in which many individual electricity customers buy into an offsite solar project together. This allows customers to access the cost savings of clean energy without installing solar panels on their property.
  • Massachusetts comprehensive climate law: The Massachusetts Legislature passed a new major climate law just days after the 2024 election. This will streamline clean energy permitting and siting, require consideration of climate goals in making decisions about methane gas, increase options for electric vehicle infrastructure deployment, and promote battery energy storage and offshore wind.
  • New Mexico became the fourth state to pass a Clean Transportation Fuel Standard: This major transportation legislation will provide consumers with alternative fuel sources and reduce vehicle pollution. The revenue will be invested into transportation electrification and renewable energy in rural, underserved communities.
  • Vermont joins 100% clean energy states: Vermont enacted an updated Renewable Energy Standard that requires Vermont’s two largest utilities, which serve roughly 70% of the state, to transition to 100% clean electricity by 2030 – the fastest timeline in the country. Additionally, all other utilities must transition to 100% clean electricity by 2035.

“State leaders understand what’s at stake with a new Trump administration,” said Bill Holland, Vice President of State Policy and Advocacy. “They know their leadership is the only thing standing against unprecedented attacks on our health and giveaways to big polluters. Clean energy is the fastest cheapest way to meet our energy needs. 2024 state clean energy victories demonstrate that governors and state legislators are ready to stand up to Trump’s fossil fuel industry giveaways, drive state climate leadership and ensure clean and affordable energy for state residents nationwide.”

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Since launching the Clean Energy for All campaign in 2018, LCV and our more than 30 state affiliates have secured 100% clean energy commitments from more than 2,100 successful local, state, and federal candidates. In 29 states, we have translated those commitments into policy progress, including 16 states in the Conservation Voters Movement that have committed to 100% clean energy. This year, we continued to win policies that protect public health, defend our environment, create good, family sustaining jobs, reduce the legacy of toxic pollution in frontline communities, and reduce costs for people across the country.