Advanced Energy Perspectives

If you’ve been tracking the contours of recent legislative sessions under the Gold Dome in Denver, you’ll likely have high expectations about Colorado’s ability to deliver ambitious, even nation-leading, clean energy bills year-after-year, spurring headlines and the envy of other states. Take, for example, last year’s Senate Bill 218 to modernize distribution-system planning, Senate Bill 16 in 2023 to cement a statewide commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050, Senate Bill 264 in 2021 to initiate “Clean Heat Plans” and innovative gas infrastructure planning, or Senate Bill 260 (also in 2021) to create stable multi-year funding streams for clean transportation initiatives—the list goes on.

The 2025 Virginia legislative session launched on January 8, with a rapid sprint toward crossover on February 4, and concluded on February 22. Over 45 days, lawmakers raced to pass critical legislation. With a high-stakes governor’s race and House elections looming in November, Advanced Energy United’s Virginia policy team advanced key energy policies while navigating a challenging landscape.

Earlier this summer, thanks in large part to the leadership of Senator Dawn Euer and Representative Arthur Handy, Rhode Island took a significant stride towards meeting its clean energy goals by passing the 2024 Energy Storage Systems Act, which Governor Dan McKee signed into law on June 26th. In doing so, Rhode Island joined many of its neighbors in making energy storage a key part of its energy transition strategy. 

Two energy trends are at play today in nearly every state: the demand for more electricity in general is rising for the first time in two decades, and the demand for a greater share of new electric-generating resources to be from clean resources is at an all-time high. Even before landmark legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) unlocked unprecedented levels of incentives to build new wind, solar and battery storage projects, nearly all new generating capacity added to the U.S. power grid was from clean energy. Now, there is also increasing pressure to accelerate the building of new clean energy resources thanks to growing energy needs driven by increased domestic manufacturing, more transportation electrification, and data centers and artificial intelligence. Many of the companies building these new facilities want them to be powered by renewable energy.