Remaking the State for Green Economic Populism

By Johanna Bozuwa and Patrick Bigger

On Trump’s first day back in office, he signed executive orders “Terminating the Green New Deal” (nevermind that a Green New Deal never became law, just the less ambitious Inflation Reduction Act). Trump’s orders do not merely signal hostility to climate action, but also to the very idea that government can work for the common good. Forest Service firings mean there is nobody to tend to dangerously overgrown forests fueling wildfires. New battery manufacturing facilities wait in limbo as Trump plans to roll back EV incentives created by the Inflation Reduction Act, and Community Benefits Plans for major energy projects have been nixed as part of the anti-DEI crusade.

While Trump eked out an electoral victory on a combination of working class rage and disaffection, his actions will further deepen economic divides and accelerate crises for working families across the country. The administration is defunding climate investments while the destabilizing effects of the crisis are already clear—tens of thousands of people lost their homes, from Los Angeles to Asheville, in climate-driven disasters in just the last year, and climate-related supply shocks are increasing grocery bills. Trump’s sweeping, chaotic austerity program and energy dominance agenda ultimately punishes the multiracial working class in favor of billionaires.

The climate crisis is a cost of living crisis, and measures to avert climate catastrophe also have the potential to remake the economy. At the Climate and Community Institute, we know it is both possible andimperative, to deliver lower costs and material investments to working people that address the climate crisis head-on—in a phrase, green economic populism. We can decarbonize while providing comfortable, affordable housing; create new, unionized jobs that people are proud to do; make communities more livable and beautiful; and force polluters and billionaires to pay for their pollution.

Strategically, that means playing defense against the onslaught of cuts in the short term, while simultaneously continuing to build the vision of what we could- and must- have as a way to build power and govern when the time comes.

The Failure of ‘All of the Above’ Energy Policy

Every little bit of warming associated with more greenhouse gas emissions will make storms more punishing, wildfires burn hotter, and heatwaves last longer—all to the detriment of communities already struggling from decades (or centuries) of discrimination and underinvestment. The US is the biggest climate villain. It is the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the largest climate polluter in world history.

As part of the Paris Climate Agreement (from which Trump has withdrawn), the US would need to cut emissions by 7.6% a year until 2030 to meet self-defined goals, which themselves are not sufficient to limit warming to 1.5 degrees; if all countries followed the US’s approach, warming would hit 3 degrees- a death sentence for communities and whole countries around the world. . In 2024, emissions dropped just 0.2%. Even worse, the US is now the largest oil and gas producer not just currently, but in world history - and that is before Trump releases the few checks left on the spigot. So even as the US installs more renewable energy, its ‘all of the above’ energy strategy is radically insufficient to deliver what is needed.

Over the past two decades, the United States has made uneven progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In the early 2000s, emissions rose steadily, driven by unchecked fossil fuel extraction and a lack of federal climate policy. Total emissions have been slowly drifting downward from their peak in 2011, but progress has been slow and uneven as a result of Federal policy guided by an ‘all of the above’ energy strategy that has expanded renewable energy generation, but also radically increased fossil fuel production. This means that even though solar projects are breaking investment records, demand for gas also reached a record high of 99.7 billion cubic feet per day.

Now the Trump administration is pursuing an aggressive expansion of oil and gas drilling, framing it as a matter of “energy dominance” that comes at a steep cost. The expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure will lock in higher emissions for decades and deepen dependence on volatile global energy markets. When oil prices spiked in 2022, driving up the cost of gasoline and heating oil, working people suffered the most. The promise of “energy freedom” based on expanding fossil fuels is a cruel illusion—one that leaves us more vulnerable to both climate disasters and economic shocks.

The Cost of Gutting the Administrative State

What progress has been made on climate, including real, important cuts to emissions from electricity generation and the growth of a domestic renewables industry, has been fragile. Taking on the climate crisis in an efficient, time-sensitive manner creates a massive coordination problem that the market is poorly suited for. The state is the only entity that has the stated mission, the agency, the resources and the staff to move such a large scale project.

The DOGE assault on the administrative state is therefore a massive attack on climate policy, in addition to the very idea that the government can and should work for the people. Slashed budgets, sidelined scientists, and dismantled regulations are a recipe for further climate breakdown, even if the previous form of the state was already insufficient to drive the magnitude of the changes that are needed for just approaches to the economy or environment. The US will lose the climate gains it has made, however modest.

Instead, the Trump Administration is governing by the logic that the state is simply a weapon to punish enemies- immigrants, people of color, advocacy organizations, or simply anyone outside of the techno-industrial ruling class. It will continue to starve marginalized communities of much needed investment in affordable housing, upgraded infrastructure, clean transportation, and all the jobs that come with those projects. These are the very same communities already bearing the brunt of toxic air pollution, rising energy costs, and outrageous rents.

Fighting for Green Economic Populism

The failures of the past decade- and the dangerous future we’re facing- underscore the urgent need for a new approach. We need to forge green economic populism by connecting the dots between kitchen table issues, compounding climate emergencies, and economic disenfranchisement to rally a multi-racial working class. We need a compelling vision that remakes the state for economic and environmental freedom, plans key sectors of the economy, and provides universal programs rooted in solidarity. Without a strong climate agenda driven by green economic populism, emissions reductions will remain vulnerable to the whims of political change and the economic power of the billionaires who stand to lose from a transition to a clean, just economy.

Remake the state for economic and environmental freedom

The moment requires nothing less than a sweeping set of programs– retooling the physical and human infrastructure we have as well as designing new programs altogether. The US government is roughly the same size as it was in the late 1970s; to be at the same size it was, proportionate to population, in the Carter-era would require adding an additional 1.5 million federal workers. DOGE’s recent cruel, roughshod firings means we will inherit a hollowed-out state to rebuild, at best. There are no doubt efficiencies that can be realized and reforms to make the civil service more responsive to the real needs of the public in a progressive administration, and the moonshot to keep the world livable is a massive opportunity to remake the state.

The United States government has done this before. For example, the successes of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) from the 1930s-50s radically expanded access to modern technology through public investment in areas that the private sector ignored. The REA program took rural America from 10 to 90 percent electrified in ten years. The Works Progress Administration put men to work while building everything from essential infrastructure like the housing in DC, replacing unsafe alley dwellings, and public luxuries like the Berkeley rose garden with terraced amphitheater for area residents. The 21^st century version of this approach includes radically scaling up publicly-owned electricity generation capacity. By creating democratic control over the electricity system, the state can find equitable solutions to inevitable tradeoffs that come with building huge amounts of new infrastructure while lowering bills. Similarly, investing in public works projects for low-carbon leisure, like more public pools, allows families places to cool off during heat waves. Achieving these goals will mean more, not less, administrative state.

Planning for Change through Industrial Policy

An unplanned transition is an unjust transition. Without coordination, the benefits to decarbonization will accrue to the wealthy able to exploit a largely market-based system. Just look at the transportation sector. While rich families have their choice between an EV Hummer or a Tesla Cybertruck, others can’t make the jump out of their gas-fueled cars or have to rely on a crumbling transit system to get to their jobs. Taking agency in planning the transition means that the US can instead guarantee outcomes on set timelines as well as balance the benefits of the shifting economy. This means investing in the supply chains we need for a decarbonized, livable economy – tip to tail. For instance, both investing early in the supply chain, like domestic manufacturing infrastructure for products like solar panels and wind turbines, as well as the end use, like implementing regulatory requirements for emission reductions or coordinating rooftop solar deployment. By taking a holistic approach to industrial policy, we can create a self-reinforcing cycle of innovation, job creation, and emissions reductions.

To give an example, we can look to the New York Public Housing Authority and the New York Power Authority working together to accelerate innovation and lower costs and upgrade units of their housing in the 1970’s. Using their economy of scale, they ran a competition for more efficient refrigerators for the public housing households. The prize– their huge procurement order. Similar advances could be made with heat pumps, electric vehicle charging stations, and other efficient or renewables products.

Universal Programs Rooted in Solidarity

Universal (or near-universal) programs do not rely on complicated, often absurd, means-testing. Instead, they provide a service for everyone, which has the potential to design in multi-class solidarity. While universal programs can be more expensive in the short term, they are also wildly popular and are a sure fire way of ensuring that prosperity is distributed to everyone. Universal programs are building blocks of a society that is more resilient to climate impacts and more able to participate in civic life when they are freed from the burden of swimming against the tide of an economy that is structurally designed to benefit the ruling class. These programs must be rooted in solidarity, recognizing that our fates are intertwined.

Free public transit is a clear example of a universal program that also can help decarbonize the highest-emitting sectors in the United States. Cities have already pilot-tested this idea. For instance, Boston made three bus routes free for two years. The outcomes are resounding– low income riders were able to save money and commute to school or work. And generally people expressed having a more hassle-free experience, feeling like bus rides took less time and increased the likelihood of using the bus. By pulling people out of cars and onto buses, we can de-congest the roads and lower transportation emissions. Transportation isn’t the only place where climate-friendly universalism can come in– green social housing, child and elder care, and even Medicare-for-All are all examples of projects that can advance accessibility and climate goals at the same time.

Winning the Future Everyone Deserves

The path to a just climate future will be hard. It will require overcoming entrenched political opposition, dismantling systemic inequities, and reimagining the role of the state in our lives. But the stakes could not be higher. The climate crisis is not just an environmental issue—it is a crisis of democracy, of justice, and of our collective future.

By remaking the state for freedom—through a Green New Deal, won through green economic populism that centers economic justice, transformative industrial policy, and universal programs that benefit all—we can build a future where no community is left behind. A future where the economy is a source of empowerment, not exploitation. A future where the state is a tool for liberation, not exclusion.