The hypothesis: many Republicans would like to see a reduction in Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, whether or not they believe in anthropogenic climate change. Please see Part I of this series for how I arrived at this hypothesis.

Now, let's test the hypothesis. I will use policies that result in a reduction of GHG emissions as evidence of intent to reduce said emissions. Since the politicians that produce these policies are voted into office, I will assume their constituencies are in favor of said policies.  Since we're talking about Republicans, we'll look at Republican politicians. Long story cut short: if state legislatures with Republican majorities pass legislation that promotes a reduction in GHG emissions, they and their constituents probably want to cut emissions in their state.

An example of emission-reducing legislation is that which facilitates or mandates improvements in energy efficiency. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, energy efficiency is the single most effective tool we have to combat climate change, allowing us to "cut energy use by almost half through more ambitious investments in efficient and/or electric vehicles, appliance, buildings, and industrial plants."  And in their recent paper on how to avoid dangerous climate change, Y. Xu and V. Ramanathan indicate energy efficiency improvements alone could reduce warming by .9°C this century. 

So how are the Red States doing in the energy efficiency department? Not bad, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which list states that have recently passed efficiency legislation*.  For instance:

States and Environment and Energy Policies-resized.png

Plus:

States and Building Codes-resized.png

So what do these charts tell us? That Republican states are no slouches when it comes to enacting legislation to improve energy efficiency. No, they're not pushing a big carbon tax and they're not using the threat of climate change to justify their legislative agenda. But still...it's something.

Next: what are Red states doing to promote renewables?

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*Red = Republican legislatures; Blue = Democrat; Red and Blue = Split legislatures. Nebraska is uncolored because its unicameral legislature is officially nonpartisan (although in presidential elections, Nebraska is strongly Republican).