Blue Wave Election Gains Could Boost Clean Energy and Electric Vehicle Policy

Democrats absolutely crushed Republicans during the US midterm elections. I saw that it was the biggest electoral win since 1974. Texas is blue! Not just one position in Texas either — the governor is now a Democrat, a Democrat was elected to the US Senate, and the whole Texas legislature swung blue! 🌊 Kansas elected a Democrat for the Senate for the first time since 1932!

I’m sure there are many detailed analyses we can all read in coming weeks and months on how this happened, but here are a few obvious reasons the election ended up being so blue:

• Donald Trump started another stupid war in the Middle East that has driven up the price of oil/gas significantly. (People by and large don’t even know the reason for this war, and if they do, that doesn’t. help much anyway since it’s an idiotic war.)
• Donald Trump has held steady on his TARIFFS ON ALL THE THINGS and FIGHT WITH OUR ALLIES, TARIFFS ON ALL THEIR HOUSES policies. That has driven up the price of goods across the board in the United States. Trump was supposed to end inflation on Day 1, but he has added to it. And it’s not some global phenomenon out of his hands that has done it, but specifically his policies.
• Trump doesn’t seem to care at all about rising costs and the challenges of normal Americans. He cares about his billionaire allies (as much as they are useful to him at least). He cares about making a fortune at the cost of suckers across the country. He cares about using his position and power to make an even bigger fortune off of rich dictators and oligarchs from other countries (Middle East, Russia, etc.). He cares about stupid renovations that have messed up the iconic Reflecting Pool and White House. As if we needed more proof of this in recent years, he really doesn’t care at all about the little guy, about small business people, about normal Americans.

Surprise, surprise — all of that has led to Republicans staying home, swing voters swinging blue, and Democrats coming out en force.

Not much of this has been driven by a focus on the climate or clean energy. Though, it does play a notable role since solar power and wind power drive down costs, but Trump keeps fighting them — illegally at times. Also, he has wasted billions of dollars paying companies to not turn on wind farms they’ve built! It is just pure fiscal irresponsibility. Overall, though, people were voting directly on climate and cleantech issues, even though Trump’s policies and international politics have been harmful on those matters and come with significant costs as well.

Now that Democrats have won Congress, and have won by a landslide or a big blue wave, they do have power, influence, and the initiative to drive affordable clean energy forward. Strengthen regulations again that help move us to cheaper, cleaner energy and cars, or push for that. Put pressure on Republicans for constantly supporting expensive coal power plants, gas power plants, giant AI data centers, and enormous subsidies (including through wars and invasions) for fossil fuels. Highlight for the public that these policies and wasteful wars are costing them a ton of money and will cost them more.

Use this blue wave to push the cleantech messaging agenda forward, and, importantly, to try to truly drive down costs for Americans with more sensible energy policies and plans.