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Midwest Elections May Mark Shift Back Toward Coal Governors’ races in the Great Lakes region have the potential to mark a shift in energy policy in the Midwest, away from recent efforts to “green” the region’s energy mix and back toward expanding the use of coal.
In 2007, Midwestern governors formed an accord calling for a regional cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions. In 2009, an advisory group released an energy road map that recommended achieving jobs creation and emissions reductions with green policy such as changed building codes and mandates for renewable electricity.
Now, with most of those measures yet to be implemented, races in Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and Iowa are being regarded as tossups or else might lean Republican, according to analysts. Minnesota is the only one of those states not currently being led by a Democrat.
In Michigan, for example, Gov. Jennifer Granholm issued a 2008 order making permitting more difficult for coal plants. She also pushed hard for wind and solar tax credits and a regional greenhouse gas reduction accord. Granholm’s term limit is up, though, and her would-be successors—even some Democratic ones—are heading into November with promises to re-implement friendlier coal policy and move away from renewable energy.
In Iowa, Republican challengers to the incumbent Democratic governor have said they support renewable energy but also back new coal development. In Wisconsin, the endorsed Republican gubernatorial challenger this year opposed an energy bill that included emissions reduction targets and renewable energy mandates.
In the event that a federal emissions cap passes, the next generation of Midwestern governors will be critical to implementing new climate policy in their states.
The six states together produce about a fifth of the U.S.’s electricity-related CO2 emissions. These states are manufacturing-based, wind-rich and currently very coal-dependent—making them an obvious place not only to target greenhouse emission reductions but also to explore what makes effective policy when it comes to achieving those reductions. But in the Midwest, as elsewhere, the economic climate makes it difficult for candidates to talk about anything other than job creation. That counts doubly for incumbents—particularly Democratic ones. |
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