Major Legislative Trends in the Energy and Environment Space

At the end of each year, our policy analysts share insights on the issues that have been at the forefront of state legislatures throughout the session during their review of thousands of bills across all 50 states. Here are the big developments and high-level trends we saw last year in the energy and environment space, plus what you can expect in 2025. 

PFAS

The introduction and passage of legislation addressing perfluoroalkyl and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has been a priority for states across the country for the last several years. PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” do not break down naturally, can accumulate over time, are toxic at small levels, and are found in a wide range of consumer products such as food packaging, cookware, textile articles, cleaning products, cosmetic products, dental floss, juvenile products, menstruation products, upholstered furniture, and various other products used by consumers each day. PFAS are also found in plastics, drinking water, and firefighter PPE and firefighting foam.    

States are addressing this issue via phased-bans or restrictions on PFAS in consumer products and in firefighting PPE and firefighting foam, through the funding of PFAS remediation projects in the water supply and on military installations, and by creating studies to address the broad impacts of PFAS. (For more background on this issue, read our 2023 recap piece from last year.)

2024 State Legislative Recap: PFAS

During the 2024 legislative sessions, state lawmakers introduced over 300 bills addressing PFAS and states enacted nearly 50 bills in 19 states. High-profile enacted bills include bans on PFAS in consumer products. However, a number of bills appropriated funds for PFAS remediation. In 2024, both Republican and Democrat-led states tackled the issue showing its growing, bipartisan importance nationwide.   

Maine enacted legislation (ME LD 1537), which, effective January 1, 2026, will prohibit a person from selling, offering for sale, or distributing for sale in the state any cleaning product, cookware product, cosmetic product, dental floss, juvenile product, menstruation product, textile article, ski wax, or upholstered furniture containing intentionally-added PFAS. In Colorado, legislation (CO SB 81) was signed into law this past May and will, beginning in 2026, ban the sale or distribution of cleaning products, cookware, dental floss, and menstruation products containing intentionally-added PFAS. The Colorado bill, beginning in 2028, will expand the ban to include textile articles, outdoor apparel for severe wet conditions, and food equipment intended primarily for use in commercial settings. Maryland passed a law (MD HB 1147) banning the sale or installation of playground surfacing materials that contain intentionally added PFAS beginning October 1, 2024.  

Vermont Governor Phil Scott (R) signed a PFAS bill (VT SB 25) into law which bans the sale, offer for sale, or distribution of food packaging, cosmetics, menstrual products, cookware, juvenile products, rugs, carpets, textiles, outdoor apparel, athletic turf fields, firefighting foam, and PPE containing PFAS. Connecticut’s Governor Ned Lamont (D) signed into law a bill (CT SB 292), which, beginning in 2028, will ban the sale of various consumer products containing intentionally added PFAS, and beginning January 1, 2026, ban the sale of any new or not-previously-used outdoor apparel for severe wet conditions that contains PFAS unless the product is accompanied by a disclosure with the statement “Made with PFAS chemicals.” Rhode Island enacted a law (RI SB 2152) that, beginning in 2027, bans the sale of artificial turf, carpets or rugs, cookware, cosmetics, fabric treatments, juvenile products, menstrual products, ski wax, and textile articles containing PFAS. The Rhode Island law will also ban the sale of Class B firefighting foam containing PFAS beginning in 2025.   

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R) signed into law a bill (NH HB 1114_ that extends, to 2029, the Commission on the Environmental and Public Health Impacts of Perfluorinated Chemicals to investigate and analyze the environmental and public health impacts relating to releases of perfluorinated chemicals in the air, soil, and groundwater in certain New Hampshire towns.  

Various states including Washington (WA SB 5949), New York (NY AB 8804), Wisconsin (WI SB 70), Minnesota (MN HF 4124), Alaska (AK SB 187), South Carolina (SC HB 5100), Michigan (MI SB 747), and California (CA SB 867) have included funding for PFAS remediation projects in their enacted budgets and appropriations bills in the 2024 session.  

2025 State Legislative Outlook: PFAS 

We expect to continue to see PFAS legislation considered on issues such as PFAS in consumer products, firefighting foam and equipment, and PFAS remediation. We also expect to continue to see states introducing legislation establishing committees to study PFAS remediation and the effects of PFAS on public health and the environment. 

EPR Packaging

Momentum is building in states throughout the country to advance new policies that address the issue of plastics and material circularity. One of these new policies comes in the form of extended producer responsibility (EPR) for packaging, programs which are designed to shift the responsibility and cost burden of recycling from municipalities to private industry and have been successful in Canada and parts of the EU. Under an EPR packaging program, producers and sellers of packaging materials pay fees into a designated producer responsibility organization (PRO) to encourage the use of more sustainable packaging and invest in new recycling processes that promote circularity. 

In 2021, Maine became the first state to enact an EPR packaging law. Since that time, California, Colorado, Oregon, and most recently Minnesota have each followed suit with EPR packaging programs of their own. These new programs create complex and challenging compliance obligations for packaging stakeholders throughout the supply chain, from material manufacturers to retailers to waste collectors. With federal progress on the issue appearing unlikely, states will continue to advance their own EPR packaging programs in the coming years. This will result in an ever growing patchwork of complex state programs without uniformity. The central premise of EPR packaging programs is establishing funding mechanisms for recycling programs from private industry stakeholders, either partially or completely. (For more background on this issue, read our 2023 recap piece from last year.)

2024 State Legislative Recap: EPR Packaging

Minnesota became the fifth state to enact an EPR packaging law (HF 3911) in 2024 the first state to do so since 2022. Lawmakers in New York state were able to rush an EPR packaging bill through the Senate near the end of session, but the bill ultimately failed in the House. Additional bills were introduced in Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Washington. 

So far, momentum to enact EPR packaging legislation has been concentrated in Democratic trifecta states where Democrats hold control of both the legislature and the governorship. This trend will likely continue in the near term as like-minded states take inspiration from programs in Minnesota, California, Colorado, Oregon and Maine. While Republican states have so far been reluctant to embrace EPR for packaging, Republican states may introduce similar legislation in the coming years if the public private partnership nature of the programs become successful experiments in other states. The pro-EPR arguments in Democratic states are heavily focused on the positive environmental impacts, but there are also pro-EPR arguments that could be attractive to some Republican lawmakers as well, including that these programs solidify the US’s domestic supply of key materials and free up municipal money that would no longer be needed for state-sponsored recycling, potentially leading to tax cuts. 

2025 State Legislative Outlook: EPR Packaging

We expect multiple states to seriously consider EPR packaging laws in 2025 building off the momentum from Minnesota’s recent enactment. In particular, we expect to see legislation advance in Washington, New Jersey and New York where the issue has been debated over the last several cycles and lead sponsors have expressed interest in advancing their legislative priorities in 2025.  

Microplastics

2024 State Legislative Recap: Microplastics

States have also started to turn their attention to the issue of microplastics, which have been found to be present in some drinking water and food, and have been found to be damaging to human health. A number of states have introduced legislation to address the issue including California, where Governor Newsom (D) signed SB 1147 into law this September. The bill requires the State Water Resources Control Board to adopt drinking water standards for microplastics and also requires water-bottling plants that produce bottled water to report the levels of microplastics in its products. 

The presence of harmful microplastics in consumer goods, drinking water, and food, has spurred more state legislation to address the issue. So far states have introduced (and enacted) various policies to address the presence of microplastics. Illinois introduced five different bills related to microfiltration systems in commercial washing machines and enacted a bill that requires the IL EPA to publish online information about microplastics and their effects on aquatic life and human health. In Minnesota, lawmakers made the initial step of defining “microplastics” and “nanoplastics” as part of a larger bill that includes a bevy of environmental related policies. Lawmakers in New Jersey introduced legislation to ban the manufacturing and sale of consumer products containing microbeads along with regulations concerning the identification and testing of microplastics in drinking water. Similar legislation was also introduced in Rhode Island, Texas, and Virginia. 

2025 State Legislative Outlook: Microplastics

States will continue to introduce legislation related to microplastics over the coming years as legislators across the country are focused on addressing the presence of harmful chemicals in consumer products and drinking water. The use of chemicals that are categorized as PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances) have been under heavy scrutiny by state governments over the last several cycles, and the focus on microplastics in products goes hand in hand with the restrictions on PFAS chemicals as a continuation of this trend. 

Energy Infrastructure

As the nation’s energy system transitions from fossil fuels to renewables, an increasingly daunting challenge is how to get the energy produced by wind and solar generation, which are often positioned in areas away from population centers, to the businesses and residents that need to consume the electricity. This is primarily accomplished by long-range transmission lines. But it’s largely acknowledged that today’s electrical grids and transmission line systems are not up to the task of the growing demand for electricity in the U.S. 

This challenge of meeting their states’ future energy needs finally began to dawn on state lawmakers in 2024. Legislators typically like to focus on short-term goals that are easier to pass or block in the case of bills they oppose, but thinking long-term to meet the nation’s energy needs takes a large amount of planning, resources, and funding — all topics that many in the state legislature are loathe to pursue. Increased energy resources will be needed in the very near future to meet the rising demand for energy from data centers, electric vehicles, and growing populations. In addition to increasing energy supplies, utility companies, regulators, and policymakers will need to build out their infrastructure and transmission capabilities in order to handle the predicted increase in energy usage. Other major considerations that must be factored into the energy buildout include costs to ratepayers and environmental impacts.

2024 State Legislative Recap: Energy Infrastructure

States began to address these long-term planning issues with their grid in 2024. One way states are meeting rising energy needs is by cutting red tape in the permitting process to make it easier to bring new generators online. Lawmakers in Arizona this June passed legislation (AZ HB 2003), which will allow utility companies to replace aging (built before 1971) power lines without having to apply for new environmental permits or hold hearings. In New York, the legislature’s massive 2025-26 transportation, economic development, and environmental conservation budget (NY AB 8808/SB 8308) includes a section creating a new program called the “Renewable Action Through Project Interconnection and Deployment (RAPID) Act.” This measure streamlines the existing permitting process for major facilities overseen by expediting timelines for comment periods and completion of electric, gas, and renewable energy projects, and coordinating with local governments. 

Modernization of the electric grid would also help states meet increasing energy demands by making transmission facilities more efficient, less wasteful, and able to handle increased loads. States are looking to upgrade electric facilities to bring new distribution generation resources online, as well as new technology like micro-grids, and demand-response programs. In order to get their arms around the size of the electric upgrades needed, several states passed legislation to require their respective public utility commissions/public service commissions to conduct studies on the cost and feasibility of making improvements to the grid. Virginia lawmakers adopted legislation (VA HB 862) in March to require electric utilities’ long-term planning to include assessments of the potential application of grid-enhancing technologies and advanced conductors. The law now requires an electric utility that does not include such technology upgrades to provide a detailed explanation of why the utility declined to include such plans. 

California lawmakers likewise passed adopted legislation (CA SB 1006) directing utilities to study the feasibility of using grid-enhancing technologies. Minnesota lawmakers passed a bill (MN SF 4942) requiring utility companies to submit reports on their grid-enhancing technologies as well as their transmission capacity and congestion. The same bill also creates an ombudsman position within the PUC responsible for interconnection issues.

California lawmakers also passed legislation (CA AB 2368) to require the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), as part of its planning process, to assess short-term, midterm, and long-term reliability of the state’s electric grid. Reliability is another factor that lawmakers in some states are incorporating into their electric supply plans. “Reliability” can, however, mean different things in different states. In California, reliability of electric service is achieved by bringing large-scale energy storage batteries online, mandates renewable energy supply increases, and demand response programs. Reliability in Utah, on the other hand, factors in the state’s desire to prevent the retirement of older, fossil-fuel-burning generation plants. Lawmakers in Salt Lake passed a bill (UT HB 191) in March to bar the Public Service Commission (PSC) from approving the early retirement of an electrical generation facility unless the Commission determines that the closure does not create adverse effects on energy availability, reliability, dispatchability, or affordability. Utah also passed a bill (UT HB 374) to deemphasize “intermittent” renewable energy in the state energy policy and to instead prioritize reliability by maintaining dispatchable energy sources such as natural gas, coal, and oil.

2025 State Legislative Outlook: Energy Infrastructure

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) promulgated a rule in 2024 that hopes to speed up the construction of new and expanded transmission lines in the U.S. But that does not mean that the states do not have a role to play in the endeavor. State policymakers recognize the importance of this issue and will continue to experiment with strategies to ensure that the grid is reliable for their residents and businesses. 

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)

Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) issues have become a prominent front in cultural and economic debates in recent years, and state action on these issues continues apace. ESG related legislation continues expanding into additional issue areas after its initial concentration in state agency contracting and pension investments. Some important early ESG laws were centered around climate concerns, with Maine enacting legislation to divest itself of assets invested in the fossil fuel industry in 2021, while Texas conversely prohibited state investments with companies boycotting energy companies that same year. From there, state involvement continued into restrictions on contracting with proscribed companies, limited focus on pecuniary issues in state investments, pension fund proxy voting, greenhouse gas restrictions, and various other concerns. In 2024, these trends continued while ESG concerns also continued diffusing into new areas, like restrictions on foreign investment, and some earlier laws faced legal challenges.

2024 State Legislative Recap: ESG

2024 saw a continuation of one of the earliest ESG themes, as legislatures sought to protect controversial industries in their dealings with private businesses. In Louisiana, SB 234 required public entity contracts for the purchase of goods or services to include assurances that the contracting company does not and will not discriminate against firearm industries. This bill applies to contracts worth over $100,000 with companies that employ at least 50 people. Idaho SB 1291 includes similar provisions with respect to both the firearm and energy industries. It requires private companies contracting with public entities to certify in writing that they do not boycott any individual or company based on their involvement or support for “the exploration, production, utilization, transportation, sale, or manufacture of fossil fuel-based energy, timber, minerals, hydroelectric power, nuclear energy, or agriculture” or participation in the firearm industry.

Both of the above bills were enacted in Republican controlled states, which is an unsurprising theme for legislation that prohibits discrimination against firearm and fossil fuel companies. Another common type of bill in red states has required state pensions to focus on “pecuniary interests” when making investments by forbidding them from considering social issues, most often greenhouse gas reduction. Examples of this bill type from the past year include Georgia HB 481 and South Carolina HB 3690. 

Georgia’s new law defines fiduciaries of the state retirement systems and requires them to make investments solely to provide benefits to plan participants and their beneficiaries. It also requires voting proxies to be executed with the same aims.

The South Carolina law, dubbed the “ESG Pension Protection Act,” provides a list of items that may considered in state pension investments, and requires a basis in pecuniary factors, defined as “a factor that a prudent person in a like capacity would reasonably believe has a material effect or impact on the financial risk or return on an investment, including factors material to assessing an investment manager’s operational capability, based on an appropriate investment horizon consistent with a retirement system’s investment objectives and funding policy.” The text also stipulates that only pecuniary factors may be considered in shareholder proxy votes made by state retirement systems, and grants enforcement power to the state attorney general.

On the other side of the political divide, Oregon enacted HB 4083. The new law directs state pension investment bodies to investigate companies included in the state portfolio and divest from any thermal coal companies. The bill’s preamble refers to over 200 governments, banks, institutional investors, and pension funds that have already divested from thermal coal in the last several years, a figure which gives the impression that this specific trend may now be nearing its capacity.

A related type of bill that could still gain steam applies similar prohibitions to pension investments in foreign countries. Florida HB 7071, signed by Governor Ron DeSantis (R) in May, adds a section to the state investment guidelines concerning foreign investments, focusing particularly on China. It requires the State Board of Administration to investigate funds invested in Chinese companies and develop a divestment plan for any such holdings. It adds an exception to Florida’s own “pecuniary factors” law to allow for this divestment from Chinese companies. Likewise, Idaho HB 665 requires the state treasurer to identify and report on any pension funds invested in foreign entities and associated businesses. While the bill does not require immediate divestment from such companies, it implies that to be the next step following the treasurer’s report. 

2025 State Legislative Outlook: ESG

ESG has proven to be a compelling topic for lawmakers, and ESG bills will undoubtedly continue to be introduced across the country in 2025. After several sessions of legislation, enacted bills may not reach the same totals as they have in recent years, although ESG themes have shown a tendency to expand into different spaces. As demonstrated by the China divestment bills in 2024, heightened international tensions could provide a new basis for ESG bills. ESG laws have also now been in effect long enough that challenges have started to work their way through the courts, and “anti-ESG” laws forbidding consideration of ESG factors have fared poorly against lawsuits in recent months. These rulings could spark legislation to tighten up anti-ESG language so it can better pass legal muster.

Tracking State Energy and Environmental Legislation 

MultiState’s team is actively identifying and tracking energy and environmental issues so that businesses and organizations have the information they need to navigate and effectively engage. If your organization would like to further track these or other related issues, please contact us.