This column is for Callaway Climate Insights subscribers only, but it’s OK to share once in a while. Was it shared with you? Please subscribe.
(Bill Sternberg is a veteran Washington journalist and former editorial page editor of USA Today.)
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (Callaway Climate Insights) — And now for something completely different: After years of whipsaw climate policy in Washington, the 2026 midterm elections offer the prospect of greater predictability.
Clean energy companies and climate-focused investors have been on a turbulent ride this decade, depending on which political party held power in the nation’s capital.
In the summer of 2022, when Democrats controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress, they narrowly enacted the nation’s biggest-ever investment to combat climate change. The so-called Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, allocated hundreds of billions of dollars in green subsidies and tax credits for electric vehicles, wind and solar.
For a brief shining moment, it appeared as though the United States had finally gotten serious about making the transition away from fossil fuels and combatting global warming.