Climate Change Book Club
May 2026 Book Club
Never before has it been more important to craft good public policy to fight climate change and to accelerate the transition to clean, renewable energy. No one understands and has written more clearly about the politics of clean energy than Dr. Leah Stokes.
In Short Circuiting Policy Dr. Stokes describes the fight over renewable energy policy in Texas, Kansas, Arizona, and Ohio. Too often we focus on the political battles in Washington D.C. and fail to see that the powerful interests trying to slow the clean energy transition are focused on state legislatures and utilities commissions. In Short Circuiting Policy Dr. Stokes describes how fossil fuel interests and utilities have slowed the march toward a clean energy future in states across the country, and what advocates fro renewable energy can do to fight back.
"This is a book of the very first importance, a stunningly good piece of investigation that lays bare the answer to what may be the world's most important mystery: why are we moving so slowly to address the greatest crisis the planet has ever faced? It should be read-and memorized-by everyone who deals with energy policy in any way, shape, or form." -- Bill McKibben, Middlebury College
Dr. Leah Cardamore Stokes is a Canadian-American political scientist specializing in environmental policy. She is the Anton Vonk Associate Professor of Environmental Politics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In addition, Stokes is a senior policy consultant at Evergreen Action and Rewiring America. She was deeply involved in the designing of The Inflation Reduction Act and the powerful incentives the law established to promote renewable energy.