With state legislatures in full swing and a progressively anti-climate federal landscape, it is essential for state actors to stay aware of climate and energy policy trends, including both the opportunities and the threats. In this webinar, we explored which policy topics are trending across the country and what advocates and policymakers can learn from other states’ approaches.  

We convened a panel of experts to dive into 2026 climate policy trends and opportunities for states. Our expert panel included:

• Ava Gallo, Climate and Energy Program Manager at the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators (watch her presentation at 4:10)
• Jacqueline Adams, Senior Policy & Research Associate at Climate XChange (watch her presentation at 25:36)
• Ruby Wincele, Policy & Research Manager at Climate XChange (watch her presentation at 35:40)

For more information on state-level climate and energy policy progress, visit free resources like NCEL’s bill tracker, which tracks proposed environmental legislation, and Climate XChange’s State Climate Policy Dashboard, which tracks enacted climate policy.

Data centers have become a major focus in state legislatures in the last two years, with clear policy trends related to protections against impacts to ratepayers, local governments, energy and water resources, and emissions. This year, policies have also focused on community benefit agreements, heat reuse, and special use funds for issues like energy efficiency. At least 27 states have introduced legislation related to data center impacts in 2026 sessions.

• Ratepayer protections: ensuring that costs incurred by providing energy to data centers aren’t borne by other ratepayers, e.g. Georgia SB 34 and Florida SB 484.
• Transparency: requiring reporting and disclosure requirements for energy and water usage, e.g. Georgia HB 528, New Jersey S 4143, Indiana SB 135, Illinois SB 2181, and Delaware SB 205.
• Local control: providing increased accountability and decisionmaking powers to cities and municipalities where data centers are located, e.g. Virginia SB 94.
• Demand flexibility: requiring data center energy usage to be more flexible, especially aiming to reduce facilities’ energy consumption during peak periods to prevent grid crises, often through utility incentives or time-of-use pricing, e.g. Virginia HB 284.
• Clean energy use: requiring data centers to use clean energy or build their own new clean energy, to protect against toxic air and GHG emissions from facility power, e.g. Washington HB 2515 and Tennessee HB 2463.
• Heat reuse: exploring how to co-locate industrial uses with data centers, to reuse the heat from wastewater, e.g. Virginia HB 323.
• Community benefit agreements: standardizing how data centers must provide benefits to impacted communities, e.g. Maryland SB 0818.

Increasing solar deployment and access is the focus of many emerging policy trends, including plug-in or balcony solar, streamlined permitting and other incentives, and improved net metering. States are also exploring standards for solar permits and consumer protection rules. At least 34 states have introduced legislation related to expanding solar access in 2026 sessions.

• Plug in or “balcony” solar: 31 states are considering bills to expand solar access for renters and residents of multifamily housing through less expensive solar panels that can be plugged into a regular outlet, including through removing regulatory barriers, e.g. Virginia SB 250.
• Community solar: 55 bills have been proposed across 20 states in 2026 sessions, aiming to pilot and establish community solar programs, expedite permitting, expand size eligibility for potential sites, and provide funding and outreach to low-income communities, e.g. Arizona HB 2702. 
• Net metering and rebates: expanding community solar program capacity and extending timelines for long-term power purchasing agreements, e.g. New Hampshire HB 221.
• Instant permitting and inspections: requiring or incentivizing the use of a virtual instant permitting platform to expedite solar applications and permits, e.g. Virginia HB 590 and New Hampshire HB 1271.
• Agrivoltaics: increasing land use efficiency by co-locating solar panels on farmland. 30 bills have been proposed in 11 states in 2026, aimed at enabling and piloting agrivoltaics, as well as making agrivoltaics facilities eligible for community solar programs, e.g. New Jersey S 3939.

As grid reliability and energy affordability concerns persist, states are looking to modernize the grid and pilot innovative energy technologies, including through distributed energy resources and utility-scale siting and permitting.

• Virtual power plants (VPPs): piloting and establishing systems of small-scale energy resources that, when combined, can provide affordable energy to the grid, e.g. New York A10354, Pennsylvania HB 2264, and Virginia HB 562.
• Microgrids: supporting and expanding the use of localized grids that can disconnect from the traditional grid while generating, storing, and distributing energy, e.g. Colorado HB26-1051 and New Mexico SB 235.
• Utility-scale renewables siting and permitting: speeding up permitting, requiring community benefit agreements, and setting state-level permit procurement targets, e.g. Oregon HB 4031 and Iowa HSB 692.
• Battery storage: expanding battery storage capacity to support energy reliability, provide consistent access to renewable energy, and stabilize electricity prices. Emerging trends include large storage procurement mandates, integration of storage into utility planning, distributed battery incentive programs, and battery participation in VPP programs, e.g. Virginia HB 891 and HB 893.

Transmission reform is another key tool to meet energy affordability and reliability concerns, as energy demand rises from increased electrification, renewable deployment, and energy-intensive industries. 

• Advanced transmission technologies (ATTs) and grid-enhancing technologies (GETs): maximizing the capacity of the existing grid through software and hardware upgrades, building on the 16 states with existing ATTs and GETs policies. 79 bills across 26 states have been proposed in 2026 sessions, including studying the feasibility of ATTs and GETs, such as Iowa HF 2283, as well as requiring the use or consideration of ATTs and GETs, such as Oklahoma HB 3183 and Maryland SB 201/HB 40.
• Transmission in existing rights-of-way (ROWs): promoting the co-location of transmission lines alongside existing utility corridors and highway ROWs, building on the 7 states with existing transmission in ROW policies. 20 bills have been proposed across eight states in 2026 sessions to encourage or prioritize the siting of new transmission lines in existing corridors, including in Virginia, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Washington.

As climate impacts continue to impose major financial risks on ratepayers and insurance policyholders, states are looking for ways to hold polluters accountable and incorporate climate risk and transparency into insurance planning. 

• Insurance: as insurance companies increase their rates and some even leave states entirely due to increased risk, 11 states are looking to stabilize insurance markets by increasing transparency in disaster risk models, as well as supporting households in reducing their risk and therefore bringing down insurance premiums, e.g. bipartisan bills like Washington SB 5928.
• Climate Superfunds: as climate disasters mount and federal funding fades, recovery costs are borne by the average household, rather than the companies causing climate change. In 2026 sessions, 11 states are considering superfund legislation directed at fossil fuel companies, to “make polluters pay” for climate damages, following legislative success in New York and Vermont in 2024.

As federal rollbacks and attacks on clean vehicle policies continue, states are looking to regulate emissions from the country’s highest emitting sector through both vehicle electrification and expansion of access to transit. 

• Indirect source rules: With ongoing litigation and uncertainty about the future of California’s clean vehicle regulations, states are exploring how to reduce transportation pollution by targeting facility-level emissions. Indirect source rules require facilities like warehouses to mitigate emissions from their activities, including those related to the trucks and vessels that they attract. This effectively regulates vehicle emissions associated with the facilities as stationary sources, rather than mobile sources, to avoid federal preemption. E.g. California AB 1777, New Jersey A 3409, New York A 3575, and Illinois HB 5600.
• Low carbon fuel standard (LCFS): A market-based mechanism that limits the carbon intensity of transportation fuels. Eight states are looking to establish a new LCFS program, including Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. 
  • Four bills from 2026 sessions aim to repeal, roll back, or cap LCFS programs, in California, Oregon, and New Mexico. 
• Reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT): reducing reliance on combustion engine vehicles to limit transportation emissions. 19 bills have been proposed across 13 states in 2026 sessions, aiming to research and plan for VMT reduction strategies and set VMT reduction targets, e.g. New York A4230.
• Transit-oriented development: establishing financing mechanisms and streamlining permitting and approvals for housing near transit centers, and creating more walkable and bikeable communities. 20 bills across eight states have been proposed in 2026 sessions, e.g. Colorado HB 26-1065.

Many states are looking to enact building decarbonization and energy efficiency policies, to reduce both building sector emissions and household energy costs, including through reimagining how buildings are heated and establishing climate-friendly building performance standards. 

• Thermal energy networks (TENs): supporting the development of shared, underground pipe systems that provide efficient, low-emission heating and cooling to a network of buildings. 22 bills have been proposed across ten states in 2026, many of which are in the eleven states with existing TENs policies. Policies include those exploring the feasibility of TENs through studies and pilots in Rhode Island, Illinois, and New Jersey, and expanding existing TENs policies in California, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Colorado, Vermont, and New York. 
• Building performance standards (BPSs): mandating energy efficiency or emissions reductions targets for existing buildings. 17 policies across seven states have been proposed in 2026, building on the four states with existing BPSs. 2026 policies include establishing new BPS programs in Hawaiʻi (through regulations), Minnesota, Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island, as well as weakening Maryland’s existing BPS program.
• Clean heat standards (CHSs): emissions reduction or performance-based targets that require energy companies and heating appliance manufacturers to provide lower-emission heating services. 11 bills have been proposed across four states, a promising progression from the current slate of CHSs, with only one enacted, in Colorado. 2026 bills focus on establishing a CHS, as in Illinois, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, as well as studying and designing a cost-effective CHS, as in Vermont.

States are addressing energy affordability through a variety of strategies related to reforming utility rates and engaging utility regulators, with 63 bills proposed in 25 states in 2026. 

• Performance-based ratemaking: establishing incentives or penalties for utilities related to meeting targets for emissions reduction, distributed energy, and energy efficiency, with proposed bills in Indiana, New York, Virginia, and West Virginia. 
• Limiting utility profits and the use of customer rates to fund executive pay, with proposed bills in Alabama, Maryland, and Minnesota. 
• Prohibiting utilities from using customer rates for political activities, with proposed bills in Alabama, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, and Pennsylvania. 
• Increasing transparency around how rates are developed, as well as requiring more public input in the ratemaking process, with proposed bills in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, New York, Missouri, and Virginia.
• Capping bills for low-income customers, with bills proposed in Colorado, Delaware, and Washington.

Learn more by watching the webinar at 52:53

Q: What are we seeing this year in terms of states either trying to divert organic waste to other beneficial uses instead of landfilling, or scaling modern landfill operations for leak prevention and detection? 

Q: How do we make sure that legislation that streamlines or incentivizes electric deployment does not bypass oversight? How do we make sure we are still protecting the environment and communities?