There are two immutable forces that we ought to know President Donald Trump cannot stop. The first is the incoming tide of the ocean. The second is the growth of the clean-energy economy. He cannot hold back the rising tide because no steady stream of bluster, prevarication, or snake-oil salesmanship can have any effect on gravitational forces that rule the tides. Likewise, he cannot stop our creation of a clean-energy economy, because he cannot thwart the tremendously successful local efforts by leaders in states and towns who, by pushing for concrete, bold action on climate, are now growing green jobs like gangbusters. He may be able to slow climate progress down, but he cannot stop it entirely.
Local leaders have the freedom to decide what their state prioritizes. We have the ability to pass our own laws, our own investments, our own air-quality standards. And we know we can achieve big things locally because we already met this challenge eight years ago. In the years since Trump pulled our nation out of the Paris Agreement in 2017, we in Washington State were advancing major climate policy—unrestrained by the federal government. This includes passing the country’s most aggressive cap-and-invest law, limiting carbon emissions by setting a clean-fuel standard and requiring a 100% clean electrical grid by 2045, and investing billions to help Washingtonians acquire everything from electric school buses to solar power. None of these achievements can be taken away by the stroke of a President’s pen.
Emboldened by the power of local action, during Trump’s first term I co-founded the U.S. Climate Alliance—a group of 24 states, representing nearly 60% of the U.S. economy, that recognize their obligation to carry the ball with a climate denier in the White House, and the inarguable ability of states to act of their own accord. This approach maximizes the ideals of federalism: states acting in concert using their own mechanisms toward a common goal. And it has led to record clean-energy jobs, entrepreneurship, and robust economic growth. In Michigan, for example, Governor Gretchen Whitmer passed a 100% clean-electricity law in 2023 that will lower energy prices. In Maine, Governor Janet Mills’ incredible work over the past year financing heat pumps has resulted in the electrification of homes across her state. Thanks to the America Is All In coalition, cities and counties across the U.S. are undertaking similar efforts in their communities.
This is not to say that Trump is not a threat to climate progress. His current attempt to cut funding for clean-energy deployment—from EV-charger installations to solar—is depriving us of our clean-energy future. But rather than waiting for the judicial system to right these wrongs, or cursing our TV screens, we must act ourselves.
At this dark moment, we see peril in coping with the effects of climate change, but we also face much promise of building a new, better, higher-paying green economy. This promise, however, won’t happen without millions of Americans standing up for action. You have the power to help shape the destiny of every place you touch. You have the power to demand action from your representatives, to be on the streets, to make contributions to groups in the political trenches. The only thing that would be wrong is to do nothing.
Trump cannot stop the overwhelming pace of technological and industrial progress that has made renewable energy the least expensive form of energy and the electric vehicle the most fun and least expensive to drive. Progress on this front is inexorable. We have the tools, we have the vision, and we have one another. It is now our job to push our states to accelerate the pace of this massive decarbonization. We control our own destiny. Each of our states is free to build our own policies, our own industries, our own visions for our own communities. And Trump cannot stop us.