Joel B. Stronberg
15 min readNov 14, 2022

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US Capitol courtesy of Unsplash/ElevenPhotographs

The Impact of the Midterm Elections on US Climate Policy

Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion

Special Post-election Edition

Context is critical — a note to readers.

With the call in Nevada that Senator Catherine Cortez Masto has successfully defended her incumbency, the Democrats have managed to get through the 2022 elections keeping their 50-vote majority. It is even possible that the president’s party may even be able to Manchin-proof their upper hand with a victory in the Georgia runoff election between Senator Raphael Warnock (D) and Herschel Walker (R). More on this in a moment.

It still seems likely that the Republicans will capture control of the House but by a very thin majority. Currently, the Washington Post is scoring the House — Democrats 203 votes and the Republicans 211–218 votes are needed for a majority.

Even without knowing the final outcomes, the focus shifts to the halls of Congress and state legislatures, as well as to the White House and executive mansions around the nation. What it all means for US climate policy is an unfolding story.

As with most things these days, it’s complicated with many moving parts. How best to tell the tales? For this, I’ve decided the most efficient and flexible way to deal with what quickly becomes a dense dump of…

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Joel B. Stronberg

Stronberg is a thought leader in the climate community with over 40 years of experience covering environmental and sustainability issues as a freelancer.