Tag: tennessee

The theme this month is Mississippi River states. These states are good examples of why each state needs the ability to direct its own climate work. Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi share borders but have very different circumstances that affect how climate issues are seen and addressed by both residents and policy makers.

• Arkansas is moving forward with building an electric vehicle charging network, fostering a solar power industry, while also requiring the coal fired power plants to be evaluated every three years. There are municipal and university climate programs, and a business association for non-fossil fuel energy. Despite a lack of formal state level support, there are people on the ground working to move climate action forward.
• Tennessee has a strong cohort of people taking action on mitigation, including developing a statewide electric vehicle charging network, solar propagation, and wind power development. Universities in the state are teaching about sustainability and climate mitigation. Unfortunately, there is not much work yet on climate adaptation.
• Mississippi focuses on issues of climate resilience like sea level rise, storm impacts on the coast, oil spill recovery, and impacts to inhabitants of coastal areas. Despite no legislative interest in climate action, there is a very strong cohort comprised of MS State University, the MS-AL Sea Grant, Cooperative Extension, and the NOAA Gulf of Mexico Regional Collaboration. There is also growing momentum for solar power and electric vehicle charging across the state.