I’ve been locked in to my various screens since results from midterm elections started to roll in last night. And it didn’t take long to see the beginning of the blue wave: Democrats took control of both the US House of Representatives and the Senate, a dramatic swing from Donald Trump’s victory two years ago.  

While the results are striking, we probably won’t be seeing some of the big climate and energy policy shifts that have come in recent years as Congress and the presidency have changed hands. Instead, we’re entering a period of divided government, with a Congress that will likely do battle with Trump’s White House over the next two years. But even if the federal government isn’t likely to pass laws that overhaul energy and climate policy, the midterm results could be a big deal for energy, especially at the state and local level. 

Let’s step back for just a moment to put these results in context. Readers might remember huge laws affecting climate and energy that were passed in just the last four years. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act included massive support for clean energy, including tax credits and government grants and loans.Then the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act essentially slashed much of the support and financial incentives in the IRA from two years before.

What those two laws had in common was a period when the government was entirely united, with the Senate, House of Representatives, and presidency all controlled by the same party—the Democrats in the first case and the Republicans in the second

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