A new Stanford study, The State Clean Energy Cookbook: A Dozen Recipes for State Action on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, published in September 2014, lays out practical ideas about how states of all political stripes can approach clean energy now and into the future. A joint project of the Stanford Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance and the Hoover Institution’s Shultz-Stephenson Task Force on Energy Policy, the study analyzes and offers recommendations regarding important state clean energy policies, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, financing, and federal action.

The project was co-chaired by Stanford’s George P. Shultz, former U.S. secretary of state and a distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institution, and former U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, JD ’68, who chaired the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and served as a distinguished fellow at the Steyer-Taylor Center.

The recommendations outlined in the report highlight states with effective policies, noting that all regions and political leanings are “turning green, whether measured in dollar-savings or environmental benefit.” However, the researchers did find differences in approaches.

Dan Reicher, JD ’83, executive director of the Steyer-Taylor Center, professor of the practice of law, and lecturer at the business school, said that Democratic-leaning states are often using more green energy for environmental reasons, while more conservative states are following suit to cut energy costs and to boost the electric grid’s reliability. He explained that these policies could be particularly valuable as states develop plans to meet pending U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations to cut power plant carbon emissions.