Federal Climate and Energy Legislation and the States: Legislative Principles and Recommendations for a New Clean Energy Federalism

In the next few years, the United States likely will enact federal climate and energy legislation. To be most effective, this legislation should create a fundamentally new partnership with the states on clean energy deployment. In this new report, Clean Energy Group recommends that Congress establish a new “Clean Energy Federalism” to expand the historic role of states to fund and deploy clean energy projects, create jobs, and grow the clean energy sector. The report makes several recommendations in three legislative areas that the legislation probably will cover: 1) the use of allowance and other funding for the states, 2) more robust finance mechanisms to scale up technologies, and 3) use of modern technology innovation strategies.