Each year WRA works hard to advance our climate goals on the state level.

In an increasingly uncertain federal environment, state level action is the key to seeing real change and progress on climate.

WRA has been working at state legislatures all throughout 2025 to bring forward proactive policies that fight climate change and its impacts. We’ve also defended against anything that could hold us back from the future we want for our region.

Two of our states with the shortest legislative sessions are Utah and New Mexico.

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In 2025 New Mexico had a 60 day session while Utah had a 45 day session. In both states we saw a variety of wins and opportunities for success in the future.

We sat down with some of WRA’s policy and government affairs staff to understand what our goals were and what some of our biggest wins were in those states.

On this episode of Two Degrees out West: How did Utah and New Mexico do on Climate in the 2025 legislative session?

2 Degrees Out West is a podcast from Western Resource Advocates, an environmental conservation organization that's focused on the Interior West. WRA works across seven states to protect our climate, land, air, and water. WRA protects and advocates for Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming.

2 Degrees out West is a podcast for advocates and decision makers who want to fight climate change and its impacts across the West.

On 2 Degrees Out West we talk with climate experts and advocates to bring you stories, experiences, and insights from their work in the places we call home.

It is Hosted by Dave Papineau

Want to be part of 2 Degrees Out West?

• Email us with thoughts, suggestions, and interviewees at dave.papineau@westernresources.org.
• Follow us @westernresourceadvocates on Instagram.
• Create a clip sharing "our Bright Climate Future for the West" and send it to us at dave.papineau@westernresources.org. to be included in one of our next episodes.
• Join our email list to stay updated on when new episodes are released and calls to action on how you can help the West.
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In the West, we want a future where we're no longer dependent on coal and methane to meet energy demands. We want to see more clean energy adopted and we want to keep that clean energy affordable.

Nearly two-thirds of voters in the West want to see a transition to a 100% clean and renewable energy economy.

So - How do we get there?

What if I told you there was a lesser known but critical regulatory process that can create real emission reductions on the ground?

Integrated Resource Plans are one of the most important tools we have to fight climate change - but they aren't talked about much.

It's a state level process that determines how much of your power comes from clean sources - like wind and solar.

And the IRP has a significant impact on the energy bill you pay at the end of the month.

On today's episode of two Degrees out west learn about one of the most important parts of the transition to clean energy that you may have never heard about - and how WRA uses that process to secure a cleaner future for the West.

2 Degrees Out West is a podcast from Western Resource Advocates, an environmental conservation organization that's focused on the Interior West. WRA works across seven states to protect our climate, land, air, and water. WRA protects and advocates for Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming.

2 Degrees out West is a podcast for advocates and decision makers who want to fight climate change and its impacts across the West.

On 2 Degrees Out West we talk with climate experts and advocates to bring you stories, experiences, and insights from their work in the places we call home.

It is Hosted by Dave Papineau

Want to be part of 2 Degrees Out West?

• Email us with thoughts, suggestions, and interviewees at dave.papineau@westernresources.org.
• Follow us @westernresourceadvocates on Instagram.
• Create a clip sharing "our Bright Climate Future for the West" and send it to us at dave.papineau@westernresources.org. to be included in one of our next episodes.
• Join our email list to stay updated on when new episodes are released and calls to action on how you can help the West.
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If you're listening to this podcast, I'm willing to bet you are looking for solutions to climate change and pollution in the West.

You probably already recycle, reuse grocery bags, avoid single-use plastic, and maybe drive an EV to minimize your environmental impact.

Reducing our dependence on polluting practices is a good first step in caring for the environment.

Similarly, the transition to zero emission vehicles is a key strategy to fight back against climate change.

Countless studies have proven that over the life cycle of the vehicle, EVs greatly reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and they allow us to build a cleaner, more affordable, and more resilient economy.

But did you know that there's a way to make this sustainable technology even better for the West?

We can do this by ensuring EV batteries have a second life.

Unlike a traditional vehicle, the battery that powers an EV can be reused or repurposed once the vehicle itself reaches the end of its life.

And in an instance where a battery can’t be reused or repurposed, we can recover the critical minerals within - rare earth minerals like lithium or cobalt – which can be recycled almost indefinitely.

And even better - WRA is working within our region to advance forward thinking policies to make EV battery second life applications as effective, economical, and efficient as possible.

On today's shorter episode of 2° Out West, learn all about the circular EV battery economy and what it could mean for the future of the West.

2 Degrees Out West is a podcast from Western Resource Advocates, an environmental conservation organization that's focused on the Interior West. WRA works across seven states to protect our climate, land, air, and water. WRA protects and advocates for Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming.

2 Degrees out West is a podcast for advocates and decision makers who want to fight climate change and its impacts across the West.

On 2 Degrees Out West we talk with climate experts and advocates to bring you stories, experiences, and insights from their work in the places we call home.

It is Hosted by Dave Papineau

Want to be part of 2 Degrees Out West?

• Email us with thoughts, suggestions, and interviewees at dave.papineau@westernresources.org.
• Follow us @westernresourceadvocates on Instagram.
• Create a clip sharing "our Bright Climate Future for the West" and send it to us at dave.papineau@westernresources.org. to be included in one of our next episodes.
• Join our email list to stay updated on when new episodes are released and calls to action on how you can help the West.
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Colorado has some of the best access to beautiful landscapes of any of the states in the West.

It's home to four National Parks, nine National Monuments, 44 Wilderness Areas, 14.5 million acres of National Forest and Grassland, and over 637 peaks above 13,000ft.

And these landscapes sustain a thriving outdoor recreation economy and culture. According to a Park's and Wildlife Study, Colorado's landscapes generate over 65 billion dollars annually.

These lands are public and belong to all of us to enjoy, and we all deserve to reap the benefits of time spent outdoors. The issue is not everyone has the same access.

Due to a variety of socio-economic factors, many people from underserved communities don't enjoy equal access. Natural spaces can be far away and time consuming to get to, gear can be expensive, and some outdoor spaces can feel unwelcoming or intimidating.

Historically, many low-income and rural communities, people of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and people with disabilities have faced significant barriers in accessing the wild spaces in Colorado and all over the West.

Everyone should have access to these benefits.

In 2025 state legislatures have a chance to make that happen.

In 2021, Colorado created the Outdoor Equity Grant program to help underserved youth access the state’s vast open spaces, and this year WRA, alongside a coalition of supporters and grant recipients, is looking to expand funding for this wildly successful program.

Since 2021, Colorado has awarded more than $8.5 million to programs that provide outdoor education and recreation opportunities to underserved youth and their families. To date, these grants have supported meaningful outdoor experiences for more than 65,000 Colorado youth in 51 out of 64 counties.

On today’s episode of 2 Degrees Out West, learn what Colorado has been doing to help get kids outside, and how we could do even more

2 Degrees Out West is a podcast from Western Resource Advocates, an environmental conservation organization that's focused on the Interior West. WRA works across seven states to protect our climate, land, air, and water. WRA protects and advocates for Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming.

2 Degrees out West is a podcast for advocates and decision makers who want to fight climate change and its impacts across the West.

On 2 Degrees Out West we talk with climate experts and advocates to bring you stories, experiences, and insights from their work in the places we call home.

It is Hosted by Dave Papineau

Want to be part of 2 Degrees Out West?

• Email us with thoughts, suggestions, and interviewees at dave.papineau@westernresources.org.
• Follow us @westernresourceadvocates on Instagram.
• Create a clip sharing "our Bright Climate Future for the West" and send it to us at dave.papineau@westernresources.org. to be included in one of our next episodes.
• Join our email list to stay updated on when new episodes are released and calls to action on how you can help the West.
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The Colorado River is at the center of our region.

This has been true for as long as people have called the West home.

The River Basin has been home to Tribal Nations since time immemorial. Today seven present states, over 30 Tribal Nations, and two countries all depend on the Colorado River.

Recently, the seven states and the Tribal Nations that rely on the Colorado River have come to a historic moment where they can put in place management guidelines that will sustain the future of our region and our river.

As Westerners we all have our own story with the Colorado River. Some of us are rafters, some of us are skiers, some of us are farmers, and some of us simply recognize our dependence on the most important water source in the West. What all westerners have in common is a reliance on the Colorado River.

Over the past 6 months WRA has been collecting stories from voices around the basin to share the diverse group of people that all depend on the Colorado River.

Today we're sharing one of those stories with you from an author within the Basin, Kevin Fedarko.

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Kevin Fedarko is best known for his journalism and journeys through the American Southwest. He's had a successful career as a writer and an author covering all different kinds of adventures.

Kevin’s 2024 book A Walk In The Park tells the story of, as he calls it, a “spectacular misadventure in the Grand Canyon”. It is the story of a 750-mile odyssey Kevin and his friend Pete McBride undertook to navigate a traverse of the Grand Canyon. It left the two men with many lessons to inform the future of this river that is central to our region.

On today's episode of Two Degrees out West listen to the incredible, and unusual journey two men took through the Grand Canyon. We will hear not just about the Colorado River, but also what lessons from the Grand Canyon we can take to imagine a healthy future for our region.

2 Degrees Out West is a podcast from Western Resource Advocates, an environmental conservation organization that's focused on the Interior West. WRA works across seven states to protect our climate, land, air, and water. WRA protects and advocates for Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming.

2 Degrees out West is a podcast for advocates and decision makers who want to fight climate change and its impacts across the West.

On 2 Degrees Out West we talk with climate experts and advocates to bring you stories, experiences, and insights from their work in the places we call home.

It is Hosted by Dave Papineau

Want to be part of 2 Degrees Out West?

• Email us with thoughts, suggestions, and interviewees at dave.papineau@westernresources.org.
• Follow us @westernresourceadvocates on Instagram.
• Create a clip sharing "our Bright Climate Future for the West" and send it to us at dave.papineau@westernresources.org. to be included in one of our next episodes.
• Join our email list to stay updated on when new episodes are released and calls to action on how you can help the West.
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Today on 2 Degrees Out West we'll be learning what federal funding is available to address climate change, how it's distributed, how WRA has helped our region Over the past 4 years there's been something unprecedented happening in the federal government, and it's impacted our work at WRA for the better.

The United States government has been investing in climate solutions.

In 2022, with the help of the Biden Administration, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA. It calls for an investment of over $783 billion dollars in climate change related infrastructure.

It's also the largest investment in infrastructure in general in the United States since the Eisenhower Administration. To put that into context, The Eisenhower Administration was largely responsible for the Interstate Highway system as we know it today. The Inflation Reduction Act was and is a landmark legislation.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Act also passed with the help of the Biden Administration in 2021 set aside $550 billion to help with climate resilient infrastructure projects.

The combined spending of 1.3 trillion dollars on climate infrastructure from just those two pieces of legislation is unprecedented in US history. Given the urgency of the climate crisis, it can't come soon enough.

It has promised jobs but also a future where we consider climate change and what’s best for the natural world when we build our infrastructure.

So, where is all that money going? More importantly - how does it affect you and how will it help us address climate change and its effects?

2 Degrees Out West is a podcast from Western Resource Advocates, an environmental conservation organization that's focused on the Interior West. WRA works across seven states to protect our climate, land, air, and water. WRA protects and advocates for Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming.

2 Degrees out West is a podcast for advocates and decision makers who want to fight climate change and its impacts across the West.

On 2 Degrees Out West we talk with climate experts and advocates to bring you stories, experiences, and insights from their work in the places we call home.

It is Hosted by Dave Papineau

Want to be part of 2 Degrees Out West?

• Email us with thoughts, suggestions, and interviewees at dave.papineau@westernresources.org.
• Follow us @westernresourceadvocates on Instagram.
• Create a clip sharing "our Bright Climate Future for the West" and send it to us at dave.papineau@westernresources.org. to be included in one of our next episodes.
• Join our email list to stay updated on when new episodes are released and calls to action on how you can help the West.
• ...

Of all the states in our region, Arizona is particularly affected by climate change. It's hotter and drier than ever. Arizona is at the center of a battle when it comes to energy regulation. It's a battle happening behind the scenes hidden by regulatory language and process. But it is one of WRA's top clean energy priorities.

Arizona is falling behind the rest of the West with its progress on decarbonizing its economy, but it's not for lack of natural resources. Arizona receives an incredible amount of sunshine - over 330 days per year. It could easily be the solar capital of the country.

It's due to issues in a little known, but unbelievably important, actor in Arizona's regulatory and energy planning process: The Arizona Corporation Commission.

Energy regulation is a key element in the process of decarbonizing our region, and a lot of meaningful change happens in places like the Arizona Corporation Commission.

This podcast explores some of the recent issues at the Arizona Corporation Commission (or the ACC). It is one of the institutions that has the most power and ability to implement climate positive energy regulation in Arizona.

On this episode of 2 Degrees Out West learn what a public utility commission does, why you should care, how Arizona’s public utility commission, the Arizona Corporation Commission, is hurting Arizonans, and what WRA is doing about it.

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Tell Arizona utilities to transition to clean energy! - Western Resource Advocates

2 Degrees Out West is a podcast from Western Resource Advocates, an environmental conservation organization that's focused on the Interior West. WRA works across seven states to protect our climate, land, air, and water. WRA protects and advocates for Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming.

2 Degrees out West is a podcast for advocates and decision makers who want to fight climate change and its impacts across the West.

On 2 Degrees Out West we talk with climate experts and advocates to bring you stories, experiences, and insights from their work in the places we call home.

It is Hosted by Dave Papineau

Want to be part of 2 Degrees Out West?

• Email us with thoughts, suggestions, and interviewees at dave.papineau@westernresources.org.
• Follow us @westernresourceadvocates on Instagram.
• Create a clip sharing "our Bright Climate Future for the West" and send it to us at dave.papineau@westernresources.org. to be included in one of our next episodes.
• Join our email list to stay updated on when new episodes are released and calls to action on how you can help the West.
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Climate change is a large scale problem. It’s bigger than any one of us, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale of the issue. How can we make a difference? In the West where we can watch the winters get shorter and increasingly the effects of wildfire and drought are harder to ignore, it’s difficult not to be overwhelmed.

But, there’s hope. It doesn’t have to be this way. The best science says we haven’t missed our opportunity to do something.

At WRA we believe the opposite of climate despair is climate action.

In this episode of Two Degrees Out West, we explore some of the tangible things we can do to address climate change and its impacts. We talk with a variety of the WRA experts who help advance those goals.

You'll hear about WRA's work to decarbonize the economy and transportation of the West, our work with the White Mountain Apache Tribe to save water, and our efforts to develop new management guidelines for the Colorado River.

If you want to find more detailed information about our work in 2023, check out our 2023 impact report where we detail the different layers of our work in the West.
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(00:24:00) Kim Mitchel's Podcast with the White Mountain Apache Tribe: Find out more about WRA's work with the White Mountain Apache Tribe here.

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2 Degrees Out West is a podcast from Western Resource Advocates, an environmental conservation organization that's focused on the Interior West. WRA works across seven states to protect our climate, land, air, and water. WRA protects and advocates for Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming.

2 Degrees out West is a podcast for advocates and decision makers who want to fight climate change and its impacts across the West.

On 2 Degrees Out West we talk with climate experts and advocates to bring you stories, experiences, and insights from their work in the places we call home.

It is Hosted by Dave Papineau

Want to be part of 2 Degrees Out West?

• Email us with thoughts, suggestions, and interviewees at dave.papineau@westernresources.org.
• Follow us @westernresourceadvocates on Instagram.
• Create a clip sharing "our Bright Climate Future for the West" and send it to us at dave.papineau@westernresources.org. to be included in one of our next episodes.
• Join our email list to stay updated on when new episodes are released and calls to action on how you can help the West.
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