Respective Roles of National, State, and Local Authority

While we often think of issues surrounding energy and climate policy as being global in scale, it's also important to recognize the important roles smaller scale governments and institutions can play.

Over the past 10-15 years, state level action on energy (particularly renewable) and climate policies has flourished as a response to federal inaction here in the United States. By tackling this problem at a smaller scale, individual states and communities are more easily able to tailor plans and activities to work well within their own unique geographic and political realities.

Visit the EPA State, Local, and Tribal Energy page to learn more about state and local actions across the country. You'll see they also offer training and greenhouse gas inventorying tools to help local governments inventory and plan to reduce their emissions. (Side note: for a trip down memory lane and evidence of the sometimes subtle ways that federal agencies change their focus under different administrations, see the archived page from the Trump Administration and see if you can spot the difference.) The Center for Climate Strategies has also been working with state-level stakeholders and decision makers across the country to develop climate mitigation plans that not only reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions, but also drive the development of alternative energy technologies. Has your state developed a climate action plan yet?

Creating a cleaner energy future for the United States (and the world) is a dauntingly large task. So much of our economy is driven by the availability and use of inexpensive fossil fuels. The future threats of a changing climate are difficult for politicians and voters alike to reconcile with the very immediate and pressing economic realities we face right now. In fact, recent climate change-exacerbated events like Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria along with western wildfires prove that even current climate change impacts are difficult for people (like our lawmakers) to process and respond to quickly. It is important for us to recognize that there will be no magic bullet technology to propel us into a low carbon economy. Instead, we must strengthen a whole host of technologies and fundamentally change the way we conceive of energy. This will require support and innovation from all levels of government and society.

Let's look at an example from the Marcellus Shale gas and oil play happening here in the Northeast to understand a little better the intertangled nature of the roles of different scales of government in energy policy.

• The federal government requires oil and gas companies to obtain permits for exploration and extraction on public lands.
• The state government dictates how mineral rights and surface rights affect who benefits from the production of wells, responds to any complaints from landowners, and also issues permits for exploration and extraction within the state.

Example: Right now, there is a moratorium on oil and gas exploration in the state of New York until more information is gathered and analyzed to assess how the extraction of mineral resources from the Marcellus Shale formation may impact water supplies and ecosystems, despite threats from the Republican gubenatorial candidate (who lost) in 2022.

• The local governments are responsible for managing on-the-ground efforts related to the production (everything from road maintenance and truck traffic to increasing public services to accommodate a larger population).

Some matters are better tailored to be handled at certain scales. For example, these scenarios would probably not work well:

• local government setting permitting standards for drilling, resulting in energy companies having to comply with myriad different standards for well design, air quality, and water quality across the country;
• federal government managing on-the-ground issues related to drilling - they would lack the local expertise and trust necessary to ensure that localities' and residents' concerns are addressed adequately.