Choosing Climate and Clean Energy Policies
States use a range of programs and strategies to achieve their climate change and clean energy goals. States also vary in their regulatory structures, electricity generation and consumption patterns, access to renewable fuels, transmission networks and energy, economic and environmental goals and tailor their climate and energy policies accordingly.
To choose the power sector climate and clean energy policies that can best meet their needs and priorities, states have found it useful to:
- Engage with key state agency officials and other stakeholders who can inform and are affected by electricity-related decisions.
- Clarify state priorities, including how to meet the Clean Power Plan emission performance goals.
- Understand the amount and sources of your state's GHG emissions and develop an emissions and electricity forecast.
- Identify policy and program options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector and find out what others are doing.
- Assess your potential for energy efficiency and your potential for renewable energy to inform which options to choose for further investigation.
- Estimate the potential impacts of new or expanded policy and program options.
- Learn about the potential benefits of clean energy.
- Explore available projections of energy impacts from your existing policies and programs that affect the power sector.
- Develop your own estimate of the potential energy impacts of new policies and programs.
- Quantify the potential emissions, electric system or economic impacts of policies and programs using available tools and methods.
For more information about tools and resources to help states evaluate potential impacts of policies, see Identifying and Analyzing Policy Options. - Prioritize and choose options based on estimates and how well the options meet your state goals.