Connect the Dots

This spring, we are celebrating ClimateVoice’s fifth anniversary as an official nonprofit organization — and in many ways, the stakes have never been higher. Corporate political responsibility remains critical, and business leaders, employees and sustainability professionals continue to have an array of opportunities — and a responsibility — to advocate and leverage corporate influence.

While climate progress is being actively dismantled and stalled at the federal level, climate policies are still moving forward at the state level. At least eight states released updated climate plans this past year, with many updating greenhouse gas inventories and setting more ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals. A number of states are also improving transmission planning and streamlining clean energy projects and permits. Addressing data center expansion, clean energy deployment, community solar projects, electric vehicles, and energy affordability are top climate-related policy advocacy opportunities this year. 

Despite clean energy being the least expensive and quickest power generation source, its permitting and siting trends continue to move in opposite directions in the U.S.: with some states continuing to streamline clean energy projects and permits, while others are actively working to slow clean energy deployment. 

A case in point: dozens of wind farms are being delayed across the country at a time when expedited permitting would solve massive energy security and energy affordability concerns. The delays are “dragging down a race led by tech companies to build power-hungry data centers,” with an estimated 30+ onshore wind farm projects affected (7.5 gigawatts of stalled capacity), which could “produce enough electricity to power several cities — or multiple large data centers.” The impacts of the war in Iran on the global flow of oil is also shining a spotlight on how thwarting renewable energy development and deployment only compromises America’s national energy security at a time of increasing geopolitical uncertainty, further underscoring the need for policies enabling the rapid deployment of clean energy. 

Policies to improve transmission planning and modernization are a key example of how states can lead the way, with many states passing advanced transmission and grid enhancing technologies that improve the capacity of existing electrical transmission and distribution systems. Legislation to accelerate community solar programs continues and ‘plug-in solar’ bills are on the rise across the country, which I’ll dig into more below. 

And when it comes to electric vehicles, though federal policy eliminated consumer tax credits for electric vehicles and paused EV charging infrastructure funding, states are continuing to power the U.S. electric vehicle transition. In 2026, state level policies that expand EV incentives and tax credits and build out charging infrastructure and grid preparedness will be critical. A key advocacy opportunity is in California, where the state is pushing ahead on EV mandates, launching a $200 million electric vehicle incentive program meant to offset federal EV tax credit losses. 

On the corporate political advocacy side in the U.S., automakers such as General Motors lobbied against their own EV goals, which unfortunately helped overturn federal and state-level rules on vehicle emissions and fuel efficiency. GM had pledged to shift to an all-EV lineup by 2035 and their corporate leadership in this space is essential going forward. Honda and Ford both argued for retaining the overarching rules even while pushing back against the specifics of the regulations. More specifically, Ford noted that eliminating the standards altogether would “undermine the stability the industry needs to justify long-term investment in new vehicles.”

While the U.S. cedes ground to other countries in the EV and clean energy transition and doubles down on fossil fuel dependence, globally renewable energy produced more electricity than coal for the first time in 2025, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts that global electric vehicle adoption will continue to accelerate.