In former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden, the United States had a climate-change denier followed immediately by the greenest White House yet.
Many states responded to the Washington whiplash with moves of their own. Under Trump, more than a dozen adopted ambitious decarbonization targets, while, under Biden, others have put anti-green laws on the books.
Recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act has upped the stakes and next week’s midterms promise some variant of gridlock in Congress. That makes state-level elections, with local legislatures and governorships in most states up for grabs next week too, more important than ever in the battle over U.S. climate policy.