What a historic ‘blue wave’ midterm means for climate action
Scientific American · Grist staff ·
Democrats swept Congress and won in red states. Here are the races that matter most for decarbonization, disasters and data centers
The Democratic Party won a commanding victory in Tuesday’s midterm elections. As of Wednesday morning, the party had secured control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as several state governments. The party’s strong performance, driven in part by voters’ anger over inflation and the war in Iran, reached into traditional Republican strongholds like Ohio and South Carolina. The sweep will have profound consequences for climate action in the United States, even with President Donald Trump still in the White House.
Flipping control of Congress will allow the Democrats to hinder Trump’s numerous attempts to roll back federal climate policy. In the first two years of Trump’s term, party leaders could do little more than write strongly worded statements to administration officials. They were powerless to stop the suspension of clean energy funding, the elimination of climate rules for power plants and motor vehicles, and the hollowing-out of agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Now, the party will have a lot more leverage. Democratic senators and members of Congress can issue subpoenas to force administration officials to testify before Congress, and could even impeach Trump administration figures over funding clawbacks and staff reductions that Democrats have called unlawful. Democrats will also have control over must-pass funding bills, and Trump will have to negotiate with them in order to avoid a government shutdown. This could lead to the restoration of some funding for energy and climate resilience programs that Republicans have been trying to whittle down. With majorities in the Senate and the House, the party could even seek to reimpose some of the clean energy tax credits that Republicans rescinded last year.
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