The start of this year is unlike anything that we have seen in our nation’s history. The Trump administration is demolishing our nation’s historic commitment to constitutional governance, equal rights, human dignity, and diversity. They are rapidly hollowing out the ability of our federal government to provide even basic services, including healthcare, child care, and multiple forms of assistance to vulnerable people. Many feel unsafe. And the new administration is crippling our country’s commitment to clean energy, cleaner air, environmental justice, and climate leadership.

It is quite overwhelming. 

Since the election, and even more so since we have entered the new year, the main questions that I have gotten from folks are: 

What is Climate Solutions going to do? What is our role?

What can I do?

For those of us in the Pacific Northwest, the answer is: quite a lot.

And with Trump and his allies interrupting and reversing progress so profoundly at the federal level, the things we can do at the state and local level in Washington and Oregon are more important than ever. 

We can make sure that our regional clean energy accomplishments will not falter under attacks from fossil fuel industry-aligned opponents. We can continue defining, and pursuing, climate leadership. 

Here is some of what we are prioritizing in these dizzying times.

1. Defend our gains. In 2024, we were highly successful in defending the Climate Commitment Act at the ballot in Washington and the Climate Protection Program in Oregon. Large and diverse coalitions came together to keep our keystone climate policies in place in both states. Yet even with those notable and major victories, we know that the fossil fuel industry is emboldened by the Trump administration’s rollbacks of clean air and climate protections, and will increase their attempted attacks against our states’ progress. We are already seeing coordinated and well-funded attacks to policies currently in place to help clean the air for your lungs and neighborhood through transitioning trucks and vans to run on cleaner fuels and electricity. We need to continually and consistently demonstrate the public support of climate progress to elected leaders in our region and in other states so that they continue to defend, support, and in fact accelerate the clean energy transition.
2. Accelerate solutions that tangible improve people’s lives. The policies that we have helped to pass in recent years position the Pacific Northwest as a leader in delivering clean energy solutions that benefit people across our region. We need to translate policy, technology, and investments into concrete actions like providing more electric school buses to give kids a healthier ride to school. It means planning and building more transmission lines to deliver clean electricity to power our homes, and new manufacturing facilities to produce cutting-edge batteries and solar panels. It means more people getting highly efficient heat pumps into their homes as extreme temperatures and smoky days increase. Climate Solutions is ramping up our work in this space in a number of ways, most critically by expanding our work with the Breaking Barriers Collaborative to help businesses and organizations transition their fleets to zero emission vehicles.
3. Pass new policies to keep us on track. Both Oregon and Washington are driving toward being the first region powered by 100% clean energy, and undertaking the emissions reductions climate scientists say are required. We are not yet on track, and new challenges only make our job harder: energy-hungry data centers and AI, utility bill increases driven largely by inflation, and the volatile costs of dealing with wildfire and extreme weather. We need new policies in areas like transmission, siting, and energy efficiency to allow us to break through the barriers that are blocking the rapid progress we need, while ensuring widespread energy affordability and community resilience.
4. Network with other states to build a bulwark against federal attacks and move forward a positive climate vision with broad momentum across the nation. We are developing strategies and coordinating with our allies across the country working for solutions on policy innovation, private sector partnerships, and story-led, narrative-shifting communications. Sharing local wins will help us draft off each other to make more durable progress, even in the face of mounting federal headwinds.

Let’s face it: our country, our democratic form of government, is being stress-tested now like it never has been. Many of us, many of our neighbors and brothers and sisters are living in fear for their safety and security.

But we are not defeated, and we will not be defeated. Where assaults on our freedoms and our shared values occur, we and our allies will respond: in the courts, in the streets, and, as we described above, using the crucial levers of change that are still ours to activate. 

We will fortify ourselves by refusing to despair, by caring for each other, and by listening together to the voices that give us hope in hard times (thank you, Rebecca Solnit). We will work together, all of us, and we will keep progress moving forward.

Please keep checking our channels for ongoing updates and ways to get involved.