Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2021. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals. 

Clean vehicles will soon get priority curb access in a congested beach city next to Los Angeles, marking a first-in-the-nation effort to disfavor conventional trucks and cars.

The “Zero Emissions Delivery Zone” covers 1 square mile in Santa Monica and is meant to test the idea of “pricing the curb.” The program will grant access to zero-emission trucks, scooters and cars in select loading areas.

Drivers of gas or diesel vehicles will be given a warning if they park in designated areas and be asked to move. The city could decide to levy fines as the program progresses.

It’s part of a larger effort to transition to cleaner transportation ahead of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In addition to promoting zero-emission vehicles, the region, which is famous for its traffic jams, wants to get more people on trains, buses and bikes (Energywire, July 30, 2020).

“It’s all about helping meet our air pollution and [greenhouse gas] reduction targets that we set for the LA region,” Matt Petersen, chair of the Transportation Electrification Partnership, said in an interview.

The region’s goal is to make 60% of all medium-duty delivery trucks electric by 2028.

“We’re really looking at this as how do we price the curb long term,” Petersen said.

Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator and Santa Monica partnered in the pilot program, along with technology and delivery companies and community organizations. It takes place in the congested core of Santa Monica, including its downtown; Main Street; and Third Street Promenade, a well-known shopping hub.

Signs will designate curb areas that can be used by electric trucks and cars making deliveries. Those vehicles will have stickers identifying them as eligible.

The project also will feature three mobile food delivery robots that look like pink and orange boxes on four wheels. People within the 1-square-mile zone can order food via an app from restaurants within the designated area.

The zone will include two electric vehicle charging locations with level two chargers.

Commercial areas in the program employ roughly 29,000 workers, and the region is home to about 16,000 residents. It offers the “perfect showcase for cities across the nation on how to adopt a zero emissions delivery zone,” the project said in a statement.

Ikea will use electric delivery trucks within the zone. The company has a goal to put 100 electric trucks on the road in the LA region by year’s end.

“We believe in a zero-emission transportation future,” Steve Moelk from the Ikea Group said in a statement. The pilot program “will offer an opportunity to showcase the demand for zero-emissions delivery, and serve as an example to other retailers and cities looking for a model to replicate.”

Nissan Motor Co. also is participating in the test project.

Rachel Nguyen, director of Nissan Future Lab, said it comes as the automaker “accelerates our journey to carbon neutrality.”

Technology will be used to monitor vehicle activity in the zone and collect data that can be used to analyze how the zone affects delivery efficiency, safety, congestion and emissions. It also will provide real-time parking availability information to participating drivers.

The zone is aimed at providing information on how to reduce long-term exposure to pollution, especially as more last-mile delivery vehicles operate during the pandemic, potentially sparking a longer-term trend, according to program leaders.

Santa Monica deters gas vehicles by ‘pricing the curb’ is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

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In Batesville, Arkansas, just 17 miles west of the state’s largest coal-fired power plant, a solar array at the local high school is having an unconventional impact: boosting teachers’ pay.

In 2017, energy efficiency company Entegrity conducted an energy audit of the Batesville School District, which currently comprises Batesville High School and five other schools that serve roughly 3,200 students.

The Little Rock, Arkansas-based company found that the district’s annual utility bills surpassed $600,000, a steep sum for a school system that for years was strapped for cash — and struggled to retain teachers as a result.

But there was some good news.

The audit also revealed that the school district could save at least $2.4 million over 20 years if it outfitted Batesville High School with more than 1,400 solar panels and updated all of the district’s facilities with new lights, heating and cooling systems, and windows.

For Michael Hester, the Batesville superintendent, that eye-popping figure was reason enough to move forward with a comprehensive energy efficiency project.

“Let’s use that money to start pumping up teachers’ salaries,” Hester said in an interview. “It’s the way we’re going to attract and retain staff. And it’s the way we’re going to attract and retain students in this day and age of school choice.”

The project that resulted has helped slash the district’s annual energy consumption by 1.6 million kilowatts and in three years generated enough savings to transform the district’s $250,000 budget deficit into a $1.8 million surplus.

Just as Hester envisioned at the outset, a major chunk of the money is going toward teachers’ salaries — fueling pay raises that average between $2,000 and $3,000 per educator.

“Now we’re in the top quartile in the state,” Hester said.

No upfront costs, immediate savings

The schools in Batesville aren’t alone. At least 7,300 schools across the United States are using solar to save on utilities, introduce students to renewable energy and — in some cases — reduce their planet-warming emissions.

That’s according to a report by Generation 180, a nonprofit that advocates for clean energy and tracks the proliferation of solar through the U.S. public education system.

According to the group’s analysis, in 2019, 16% of U.S. school districts had installed a total of 1,337 megawatts of solar capacity. That means that about 5.3 million students now attend schools with solar, representing an 81% increase since 2014.

Also notable was the organization’s conclusion that if every U.S. public school used 100% solar power, the education system could drive emissions reductions that would be equivalent to closing 18 coal-fired power plants.

Standing in the way are several challenges such as policy roadblocks, financing complications and unease in some communities about opting for a nontraditional energy source.

According to Generation 180, 28 states and the District of Columbia have adopted policies to begin addressing those obstacles.

The policies do so by allowing solar development companies like Entegrity to use power purchase agreements to finance, build and maintain solar arrays on a customer’s property. The customer then pays the developer for the energy that the panels produce over a period of time — almost always at a lower rate than it would pay the utility.

Nearly 80% of solar capacity installed at U.S. public schools resulted from the arrangements that shift solar’s financial and logistical burdens onto professional energy companies, according to Generation 180.

“That means more than three-quarters of that solar on schools is not coming out of school budgets — it’s getting paid for by a developer who owns, installs and maintains the solar energy system,” said Tish Tablan, a Generation 180 program director. “So they’re seeing no upfront costs and immediate cost savings.”

In Arkansas, the Legislature didn’t pass its own version of that policy until March 2019. So the Batesville district’s array — which got off the ground earlier that same year — did not benefit from the financing mechanism. Instead, the district acquired the necessary funds through a $5.4 million bond.

The project nonetheless was successful, and it since has had a ripple effect on the surrounding region.

“There’s at least 20 school districts just in our area that have emulated our model,” Hester said. “We have the numbers to prove and to show from performance that we’re walking the walk. That’s a slam-dunk for districts around us.”

Rick Vance, who oversees Entegrity projects in Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Missouri, confirmed that the Batesville project — with the help of the recently adopted Solar Access Act — spurred a significant uptick in the number of nearby school districts considering solar.

“Batesville is in Independence County. So is Cedar Ridge and Midland and Southside. … All of them are doing solar, and they’re all doing it with us,” Vance said.

According to Tablan, that’s why Generation 180 advocates for solar in public schools. In many areas, educational facilities serve as influential community hubs. And that puts them in a position to “equip and inspire people to take action on clean energy in their own communities,” she said.

‘Pleasant surprise’

Hester said one of the more surprising outcomes of the energy efficiency initiative was the positive reaction from the Batesville community — which sits in the shadow of Independence County’s coal-fired power plant.

Nearly 30% of the Batesville area’s population is more than 60 years old, Hester said, which contributed to his initial uncertainty regarding how the community would feel about using taxpayer dollars to install solar at the local high school.

But Batesville residents were quick to notch their support of the initiative, Hester added, and they commended the district for doing its best to be efficient with their tax money.

Hester attributed that attitude, in part, to the reality that the nearby plant, which is run by Entergy Arkansas, is set to shut down by 2030.

“People know that that coal plant has a limited life,” Hester said. “It’s a loss of revenue; it’s a loss of jobs. There’s an anxiety about that.”

“So when this started showing how there are ways to help offset [those losses] and move on in alternative ways … it became a very pleasant surprise,” Hester added.

Vance said that in his work with Entegrity, he does encounter some resistance to solar. Many people have long-standing relationships with their local utilities, and renewable energy often is a new and unfamiliar concept.

But he added that it ultimately comes down to the savings, jobs and environmental benefits that solar can offer any community. He called it a “boomerang effect.”

“I’m in real rural parts,” Vance said. But, he added, “I get a lot of affirmative nods when I’m able to explain that solar is the cheapest way to produce power in the world right now. It beats coal; it beats gas — you know, all the fossil fuels that you would expect someone with a different mindset would be more into.”

Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from E&E News, LLC. E&E provides daily coverage of essential energy and environment news at www.eenews.net.

This Arkansas school turned solar savings into better teacher pay is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

©2020 E&E Publishing, LLC
Republished with permission

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order this week that targets 2050 as the deadline for her state to reach carbon neutrality.

The goal aligns with the warnings of climate scientists, who say the world is running out of time to slash carbon emissions and avoid the worst effects of global warming. The order adds Michigan to a growing list of states that have set deadlines for carbon neutrality.

But there are major hurdles ahead for the Democratic governor and her state.

Whitmer’s executive order offered sparse details on how Michigan would achieve the 2050 goal and an interim 2025 target — leaving that to a future implementation plan. And Michigan’s divided political landscape raises questions about her administration’s ability to carry out its goals.

Whitmer, who was floated as a possible running mate to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, cast state action as a hedge against federal inaction.

“At this very moment, our state is reckoning with the failure of U.S. officials to adequately prepare for the challenges of a global pandemic,” Whitmer wrote in an executive directive that accompanied the order. “We cannot make the same mistake when it comes to impending climate crises of food instability, crop-killing droughts, deadly heatwaves, and intensifying weather events.”

The actions set the goal of ending net carbon emissions by 2050 “and to maintain net negative greenhouse gas emissions thereafter.” It’s a commitment that could be satisfied by increasing carbon sinks to offset any remaining emissions.

It also called for cutting emissions 28% compared with 1990 levels by 2025.

Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy would be tasked with finalizing a plan to achieve those targets by the end of next year with the help of a newly formed Council on Climate Solutions. The department would be responsible for implementing it.

The plan would “focus on near-term objectives that Michigan can achieve in five years.”

The state’s Department of Treasury would be enlisted to support the transition.

During an online forum Wednesday hosted by the U.S. Climate Alliance, Whitmer highlighted Michigan’s experience this year with devastating floods.

“COVID isn’t the only enemy that we’re facing right now, and it’s not the only issue that we need to band together to fight,” she said.

Whitmer has made climate action a focus of her first two years in office — overseeing a reorganization of state agencies that empowers climate and environmental justice issues.

But Michigan’s GOP-controlled Legislature is an impediment to statutory action. The state’s automotive industry and carbon-intensive utility sector pose barriers, as well.

“Climate and energy policy are always tough in the state of Michigan,” said Barry Rabe, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy.

To date, 23 states and the District of Columbia have established economywide greenhouse gas targets. Nine have set carbon neutrality goals, including Michigan.

Some are state law, while others, such as Whitmer’s order, don’t have buy-in from state legislatures.

“We’re in a window where a lot of Democratic governors are trying to do something related to climate, and if the executive order approach is their only route, carbon neutrality is a kind of popular step,” Rabe said.

The Paris Agreement notes that the world must stop adding new greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by midcentury if it is to have any hope of achieving the deal’s objective of keeping warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, with aspirations of a 1.5 C limit.

Much of the world, including Canada, the European Union and China, has announced midcentury neutrality pledges — though China’s target is for 2060, not 2050.

Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from E&E News, LLC. E&E provides daily coverage of essential energy and environment news at www.eenews.net.

Michigan Gov. Whitmer vows state will be carbon neutral by 2050 is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

©2020 E&E Publishing, LLC
Republished with permission

MINNEAPOLIS — Seven years ago, this city leapt to the front of the urban climate movement when it adopted an action plan for global warming.

Hailed by environmentalists, the plan — one of the first passed by a major U.S. city — included reforms on issues ranging from energy efficiency to waste management.

But activists say the effort launched without a critical component: the input of Minneapolis’ minority and low-income communities.

Despite efforts to correct the problem, critics say the initial lack of inclusion laid the groundwork for a climate policy that doesn’t adequately address the needs of these same communities — many of which will be disproportionately affected by the consequences of a warming planet.

Locally, it’s a situation that underscores Minneapolis’ perceived shortcomings on race — a plight exposed to the world last week with the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer.

More broadly, the episode serves as a reminder of a long-standing racial divide within the urban environmental movement and the work that still needs to be done to bring about the societal change necessary to address climate change, experts say.

“The big picture is how do we make marginalized communities part of the solution to global warming?” asked Michael Chaney, a longtime Minneapolis activist and co-founder of the nonprofit program the Family of Trees. The group works to restore tree canopies in heat-stressed north Minneapolis neighborhoods.

“Until we do, how do you think by any stretch of the imagination that you’re bending the curve?” added Chaney, whose group planted an ironwood tree in Floyd’s honor. “You don’t have the numbers, you don’t have the population, you don’t have the communities.”

A call to ‘get serious’

Critics say Minneapolis’ 2013 climate plan — which the city still uses — failed from the outset to include African American and American Indian voices in critical discussions.

The oversight led to the hasty formation of an environmental justice working group to vet the document well into its drafting stages.

The review was not positive.

The group found “a large number of critical environmental justice concerns missing” from the climate blueprint, even as the plan was “critically needed” for black and lower-income residents because it addressed the transportation, buildings and waste sectors, “all of which seriously impact environmental justice constituencies within the city.”

Those concerns persist to this day.

When Minneapolis recently declared a climate emergency after modeling showed it would not meet its emissions reduction target by 2050, environmental justice organizers filled the council chamber, calling on leaders to “get serious” about an inclusive climate program.

Council member Andrea Jenkins, who is black, called on city leaders and activists to work harder to engage underrepresented constituencies, including minority and low-income people, in citywide climate conversations.

“They are not being convinced that this is the issue of our day,” she said, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Much talk, little action?

All of that stands against a backdrop of what from the outside looks like a city outperforming many of its peers on climate action.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, elected in 2017, has pledged to expand the city’s climate change initiatives, which includes more money and attention for minority and low-income communities. He said “climate change and racial justice are intrinsically linked” and has helped elevate Minneapolis to the top tier of U.S. cities on climate action.

Still activists, particularly in the black community, say the city’s efforts must go beyond the 2013 climate plan — a 38-page aspirational document with photos of black cyclists cruising along downtown’s pedestrian-oriented Nicollet Mall.

“My entire life is wrapped around environmental justice, but I think a lot of these ideas come from predominantly white organizations,” said Kristel Porter, a community organizer and climate activist in north Minneapolis, a district of mostly African American-owned homes, businesses and rental properties.

The north side is already burdened by a legacy of racist practices: mortgage redlining and race-based neighborhood covenants; underinvestment in parks, green space and environmental services; chronically low educational achievement; and nagging poverty that keeps people from even purchasing homes, much less retrofitting them for energy efficiency or taking other measures to relieve climate stressors.

“My daughter and granddaughter live in an apartment completely surrounded by concrete. There’s no trees and no green space to absorb all that heat,” Porter said. “We’re also talking about impervious surfaces and no building setbacks” to escape from heat, noise and pollution.

The problems are compounded by a lack of resources.

“It’s mostly just me going to these [city] meetings, and I need 10 more of me to do the job right,” Porter added. “We just don’t have the capital, the income or the education to do that.”

Structural challenges

As with other urban issues, Minneapolis’ handling of climate change “is an exemplar of the fundamental structural challenges we’re trying to recognize and unpack” in cities across the country, said Vivek Shandas, a professor of urban studies and planning at Portland State University and expert on the dynamics of discrimination and climate change.

A recent study by Shandas and colleagues in Virginia drew the connection between the historic practice of mortgage and insurance redlining — one of the most pervasive forms of institutional racism in American cities — and disproportionate climate change impacts on black and low-income people (Climatewire, Jan. 21).

Minneapolis, Denver and Portland — all politically progressive cities — had the largest heat differentials between historically redlined districts and nonredlined districts, in some cases by as much as 12.5 degrees.

Porter said she’s living the findings.

“Whenever the temperature goes up, the meteorologists will say, ‘Our high today was 95 degrees,’ when it’s actually 107 in north Minneapolis,” she said.

Conditions are made worse by high summer humidity, but it’s also true that north Minneapolis and other minority communities have fewer resources to beat back the heat.

For example, Minneapolis is known as a national leader in parks and green space, providing more open area per capita than any other city in the United States. But tree-shaded boulevards and attractive public parks are harder to find in neighborhoods where persons of color outnumber whites. So are public-access buildings like community centers and shopping malls that provide air conditioning during heat waves.

While predominantly white parts of south Minneapolis enjoy an abundance of picturesque lakes, wooded trails and the iconic Minnehaha Falls, the north side is hemmed in by Interstate 94 and a formerly industrialized section of the Mississippi River. Public officials and nonprofits are working to recreate the river corridor for better use, including public green space.

Shandas said such inequities exist in most American cities and reflect what researchers call “exposure-disease-stress” theory. The theory posits that a community’s environmental health and well-being correlate with investment in strategies that provide protection from climate stressors — heat, cold, storms, fires and drought. Without such investment, a community will almost certainly decline, experts say.

Ultimately, Shandas said, climate solutions that don’t account for racial and cultural differences lead to “a self-fulfilling outcome” of isolation, poverty and institutional discrimination — all of which feed socioeconomic ills like poor schools, a lack of access to health care, and elevated tensions with police and first responders.

Some white environmentalists also are seeing the bigger picture.

“There has been some deep soul-searching in Minneapolis and a lot of talk about who’s at the table making these decisions,” said Kyle Samejima, executive director of the group Minneapolis Climate Action.

The group was founded in 2007 as a neighborhood initiative but since has expanded its reach to the entire city with a particular focus on bringing climate change programs to underrepresented communities, including the city’s thriving Somali and Somali-American population.

Minneapolis’ Somali community is distinct from the long-standing African American community that grew substantially during the “Great Migration” period from 1950 to 1970. Today the ethnic Somali population of 75,000 is largely concentrated in a mixed-race neighborhood known as Cedar-Riverside near downtown.

“We have to move away from the ‘white savior’ approaches that are often perpetrated on communities of color in Minneapolis,” Samejima said.

Other environmental justice activists, like Mysti Babineau of the climate advocacy group MN350, say Floyd’s death reflects African Americans’ and Native Americans’ lack of standing in Minneapolis and that such inequities spill over into other realms.

“I think that what happened shows the urgency of addressing the systems of oppression that govern our society so that everybody can show up to combat the climate crisis,” Babineau said. “We all bring gifts to the table.”

Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from E&E News, LLC. E&E provides daily coverage of essential energy and environment news at www.eenews.net.

How a climate plan in Minneapolis fostered racial divisions is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

©2020 E&E Publishing, LLC
Republished with permission

Governors of states at the forefront of climate policy have earned high marks from voters for their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic — a popularity boost that could help them pass ambitious environmental legislation, political experts said.

Take New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The two Democrats lead coastal states that have been hit hard by the disease, and they’ve taken tough steps to contain it. Both appear daily on social media and television as they give frequent news briefings.

The exposure has ratcheted up their popularity. Newsom last month won 83% approval, up from 42% before the pandemic, FiveThirtyEight said.

Cuomo hit 77% favorability and a 71% positive job performance rating in Siena College’s late April poll. That’s the best job performance number he’s had during three terms, said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg.

“Obviously, a governor who has a very high job approval rating, no matter what the cause, has more heft in terms of pushing through environmental policies,” said Garry South, a Democratic analyst based in California.

Other governors seen as climate leaders have sported positive poll numbers, too, including Republican Govs. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Larry Hogan of Maryland. Baker won 80% approval for his oversight, according to FiveThirtyEight. Hogan has an 83% rating, said a poll by MarylandReporter.com.

Climate champion and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) achieved a 67% approval rating, up from 44%, FiveThirtyEight said.

To be sure, the long-term repercussions of the novel coronavirus won’t be clear for several months, analysts said. The sky-high approval numbers now enjoyed by these governors could tumble if the pandemic drags on too long or its economic impact is worse than anticipated.

There’s the question, too, of whether these governors even want to spend their political capital on climate action.

Still, the current political environment creates a window for those wanting to push legislation on global warming and other green issues, analysts said.

A connection between COVID-19 and the environment could help boost these efforts. Multiple studies have found a link between air pollution and residents’ vulnerability to COVID-19.

“A lot of political players see a clear connection between what’s happening with COVID and what’s happening on the environmental front,” said Darry Sragow, a political strategist and publisher of the “California Target Book,” a nonpartisan political guide.

“On COVID, this entire country just got caught flat-footed,” he said, “and presumably we’ve learned a lesson that we can’t stick our heads in the sand and not pay attention to threats down the road,” including climate change.

Opening for green policies

One looming obstacle is the pandemic’s impact on state budgets. That pain could last for a while, said Kevin Spillane, a Republican analyst in California.

“We’re dealing with uncharted waters,” he said. “We’ve got the worst economic situation in 90 years.”

In California, the state Department of Finance on Friday projected a $54.3 billion deficit spanning the current year and upcoming budget cycles. Newsom’s draft $221 billion budget before the crisis is getting overhauled.

But rebuilding economies can mean more electric vehicle charging stations, upgraded energy efficiency standards for buildings and homes, and fuller build-outs of solar and wind power, said Pete Maysmith, the League of Conservation Voters’ senior vice president of campaigns.

“The governors have opportunities on all of those issues, and many more, to be forward-looking when it comes to climate change and not be replicating what we’ve done in the decades and centuries past, which is a reliance on fossil fuels,” he said.

Green choices are likely, as some of the governors have been vocal about taking action on climate.

New York’s Legislature during Cuomo’s terms has passed legislation mandating 100% clean power by 2040 and an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Cuomo in his January State of the State address pledged more.

“We will set a new nation-leading response to the transcendent threat of our times, which is climate change,” he said. “No economic strategy, no social justice reform, no education policy will be worth a damn if we don’t have a planet to live on.”

In Massachusetts, Baker has pledged commitment to the Bay State’s achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. He’s promoted the importance of the regional Transportation and Climate Initiative as a way to achieve emissions cuts, the League of Conservation Voters said.

In Maryland, Hogan has banned hydraulic fracturing while also building out the state’s clean energy portfolio (Climatewire, April 8).

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has won strong approval numbers recently, at 66%, up from 42% before the pandemic. She has talked about the need to act on climate, said Maysmith. However, with a Republican Legislature, she’s unlikely to get climate legislation passed, he added.

Newsom vs. Gov. Jerry Brown

Maysmith wants Newsom in California to be more vocal on climate change, arguing that he hasn’t talked about it as a top priority.

“It is imperative, it’s incumbent on California to lead the pack and push the envelope on smart, forward-looking climate policy,” Maysmith said. Former Democratic Gov. “Jerry Brown did that, no doubt. We’d like to see more of that with Governor Newsom,” he said.

Newsom is in his first term. California before Newsom came into office saw laws enacted requiring 100% clean electricity by 2045 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

Newsom’s press office did not respond to requests for comment. His climate adviser, Kate Gordon, said she couldn’t discuss Newsom’s climate goals until after he releases a revised budget Thursday. His draft budget includes $12 billion over five years for climate programs, though some of that could get scrapped or postponed.

Newsom appointed billionaire retired businessman and climate advocate Tom Steyer to lead an economic recovery consulting team. Steyer unsuccessfully ran for president as a Democrat with a platform that included a robust response to global warming. Former California Govs. Pete Wilson (R), Gray Davis (D), Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and Brown will participate in the task force, too. Brown and Schwarzenegger also have argued for actions to limit warming.

Governors typically don’t get constant media attention, so in the current situation, “it’s a risk and an opportunity,” said GOP analyst Spillane.

A previous crisis in California led to the recall of a governor. Voters forced out Davis in 2003 after manipulation of a deregulated electricity market by now-defunct energy company Enron Corp. and others led to power shortages and rolling blackouts. Davis during that crisis appeared frequently on television. Voters came to blame him for his handling of the situation.

Newsom received pushback for his decision in April to close Orange County beaches because of pictures of crowds. Huntington Beach said it planned to sue, though that city’s beaches are now partially reopened.

“In situations like this, very often people get very angry,” Sragow said, referring in general to the COVID-19 pandemic. “They’re scared, feeling a lot of dislocation. Gov. Newsom has to be mindful that in life, very often, no good deed goes unpunished.”

2024 presidential candidates?

The broader attention on some of the governors also has raised questions about whether they would run for president in the future. Several recent presidents were previously governors, including Presidents George W. Bush, Clinton, Carter and Reagan.

Though Cuomo has ruled out the possibility, there was some early chatter that the New York governor could replace former Vice President Joe Biden as the presumptive Democratic nominee in the 2020 election, said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

There likely would be similar chatter about Newsom if not for the East Coast media bias, with major stations based in New York, he said.

“It seems like some of the West Coast responses have been superior to those on the East Coast, in terms of flattening the curve” of people contracting the disease, Kondik said.

Most of the governors receiving publicity right now are expected to run for reelection in 2022, and their handling of the pandemic likely will be a top issue. In terms of 2024, that’s a long way away politically, several said.

If President Trump wins reelection in November, that would mean an open seat in 2024 and plenty of candidates on both the Democratic and Republican sides, Kondik said.

“You would think that some of these folks who have been leaders during this crisis probably will be among the future contenders for the White House,” he said.

Inslee is 69, while Cuomo is 62, Newsom is 52 and Whitmer is 48. On the Republican side, both Baker and Hogan are 63.

If Biden wins, that makes it tougher for the Democratic contenders. Even if Biden, who would be 81 in November 2024, decides not to run for a second term, his vice president will have an advantage, the analysts said.

“It’s hard for me to see how a sitting governor can contest successfully in that kind of a situation,” said South, the Democratic analyst.

A Biden presidency also could mean governor appointments to Cabinet posts including the heads of EPA or the departments of Energy or Agriculture, or as ambassadors to important countries on climate like China, analysts said. Inslee has been mentioned as a possible EPA administrator, said Roshan Patel, a partner at 50 State, a political consulting firm.

“You will absolutely see governors get appointed to run [some of] these agencies,” Patel said.

Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from E&E News, LLC. E&E provides daily coverage of essential energy and environment news at www.eenews.net.

Will governors use popularity from virus for climate action? is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.